*Spoiler4* Gotm21-Melee - End Game Submitted

[Adam0217]

Congrats OFW, this game is my first GOTM victory as well. I won the UN vote in 1595 with a Jason score of about 5,000. I was ahead in tech but time constraints prevented a space race try. I didn't expand very much in my game after taking out most of the Minoans and using the Minoan capital as my 2nd core. I spent most of the game being a good neighbor and taking in hundreds of gpt in tech deals while all the other civs beat each other up for centuries on end.

The rising difficulty levels plus reading QSC and spoiler threads made this game seem much easier than my last Monarch try (gotm18 which was late space victory but I did not finish in time to submit). Perserverance pays off!! I'm looking forward to having another go at a higher level in gotm22.

Adam

 

[SewerStarFish]

PTW 1.21 Open
Well I just submitted my first GOTM. I usually win about half the games at this level and this game was not one of them(a stunning 600 Jason). I knew in short order that I had made some critical errors.

I fell behind in both tech and culture early and never recovered. Just when I realized that I was in trouble and decided to try and eliminate the Minoans to secure my southern border every country joined forces to wipe me out. (Okay Rome didn't, they were eliminated very early). I had to weather a withering two front war that I had to buy my way out of to survive.

I was pleased with my late game progress. If not for the spaceships I might have been able to win a histograph. Probably not though.

 

[oinland]

@DaveMcW

Thanks a lot for running those tests and finding the solution to my palace jump problem.

And it turned out those two cities did not matter much, since I was in golden age, so I maintained 4 turn research. So don't be sorry!

 

[Yndy]

ptw1.21 Predator

Finally made it. SS victory in 1345AD. Entered the Modern Ages in 1150AD. Jason score is 7900+, In-game score 6200+.
It’s been a nice game even if it took me 10 days to play the final 40 turns. I started to build tanks, lacking anything better and then invaded the Minoans, conquered the 5 cities island between Spain and Persia, then gradually conquered most of the Ottoman lands, Russia and France. I also took the Roman lands and a part of Atlantis.

I made lots of mistakes mostly in the Industrial ages but also in the Middle Ages. Researching Military Tradition was one mistake, not triggering my Golden Age between the Middle Age and Industrial Age was the second. Changing to Democracy cost me 6 turns and gave me nothing. I also lost another turn when I waited for ToE to be built and did not research anything. That’s a total of 14 turns and I could have probably convinced the AI to research another Industrial Tech (Rep Parts) and I also could have been lucky enough to get anything but Nationalism in 440AD.

Another thing that I missed was the article that SirPleb highlighted. I have read that some time ago but only now realized that killing one AI lowers the research cost. I have killed only 3 AIs during the game even if I could have killed 6.

Edit: I wanted to post the game as a multi-victory (SS-Diplo) but when I reloaded the last turn and did not delay the UN build I got a 7-3 defeat against Persia. I wonder why they did not like me?

 

[Darkness]

Thanks rabies and txurce
Early expansion was indeed very important for my game, as the Ottoman lands were very good (fertile as well as rich in shields) and my palace jump to Sogut (with Pyramids) game me a great second core in 10 AD...

 

[Kemal]

PTW1.21f

(For previous spoilers, read here (ancient), here (medieval) and here (industrial)

With the advent of commercial docks at the end of the industrial age, I had just enough beakers to get modern age techs in 4, and I decided that I would try and get the AI to do computers for me as it has prefers that tech above the others and has the most turns for to complete it (together with ecology).
One check on the F6 screen made me throw those plans to the recycling bin, however, as it turned out that computers was my free tech. That did make this age more relaxing to play however, as my scientific ouput increased dramatically again with research labs.

Against all hope, I decided to stall inventing ecology for as long as possible, hoping that due to some freak rng roll, the AI would start researching on it. At this time, they still hadn't invented either Communism, Espionage nor Sanitation, and just completed research on Free Artistry, so my hopes were very low indeed.

On the other hand, I knew the Ottomans hadn't been in their GA yet, and as they were pretty powerful with decent lands, I still had some hope. At the start of the age I gifted them computers and bought them against the Celts, and as I had stopped taking money from powerful AI's when my GA ended, even gifting some of them gpt, I had hopes their tax settings were focused on research.
One turn after I had bought them against the Celts, I decided to do an investigation of an Ottoman city to see whether they had won a battle with a sipahi already, and was surprised to see they were only spending 40% of their taxes to science.
Further investigation of some of the other AI powerhouses yielded exactly the same result, and as I knew they were never going to get a modern age tech at 40%, I decided to give it one final try and give the Ottomans, who were indeed GA'ed, as much gpt as possible.

When I checked on them two turns later, they had indeed changed their science rate!
To 30% science, to be precise....

So, no modern age techs from the AI for me, but they were researching the other techs first anyways. After careful prebuilding of the last 3 SS-parts from Synthetic Fibers, the space ship was launched in 1170 AD.

 

[Kemal]

@oinland and DaveMcW: thanks for posting, running some tests and updating the palace jump formula with your findings.

What you mention here will definitely help lots of people who fail to get a leader at the right time to move the palace, and makes me even more glad I got that leader eventually, I doubt I would have had succes with the jump I was preparing after reading your findings.

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by Kemal
So, no modern age techs from the AI for me, but they were researching the other techs first anyways. After careful prebuilding of the last 3 SS-parts from Synthetic Fibers, the space ship was launched in 1170 AD.

Looks like the best has been saved till last. I've been getting used to the top players launching their spaceship before I got the UN (1380 AD), but you did it before I even got to the IA (1230 AD) .

 

[Yndy]

Kemal, you just couldn’t let anyone beat you on your turf. I guess that’s what you get for lots of practice (and luck – free Steam Power).

 

[Darkness]

Looks like we have a new leader in the race for fastest spaceship launch! 1170 AD, wow!

great game Kemal!!

 

[STowey]

After 2 losses in my first 2 tries I finally won a GOTM. I had a spaceship win in 1768AD. No other race had even discovered space flight and other than a sneak attck by the Ottomans just before I discovered the Modern Age was there even a remote challenge to my victory.
The Greeks were the preeminent Civ through all of history with only the early Atlantians giving us any challenge early through there huge cultural start.
Romans, Hittites, Minoans, Zulus and Germans did not survive to see my ultimate victory other than as slaves.
It was a very enjoyable challenge.
Thanks Cracker for your hard work on these games.

 

[CruddyLeper]

Congraulations STowey - and late congrats to OFW too!

[dance] [dance] [dance]

 

[AdrianE]

Civ 1.29b2 on a Mac Conquest


I took the remaining Ottoman cities that I had wanted. After I took Uskadar, which had rubber, I then did a massive upgrade of all my riflemen to infantry. I had been careful not to pillage any infrastructure so the rubber was instantly linked to my empire. I noted that the Ottomans had been drafting a lot of units and/or hurrying things so their cities were smaller than when the war started. Then when my military alliances with Egypt and the Keltoi expired, I made peace. I think I had passed another war weariness level as some of my cities started having entertainers. Almost all my cities went to WLTKD after peace was signed.

Again I spent huge amounts of cash hurrying improvements in the former Ottoman cities. Cultural improvements were built first so minimize the chance of loosing any of my gains to culture flipping. I did not raze any cities during the war as I didn’t want the rep hit. That left France, Keltoi, Minoans and Egypt at war with the Ottomans. I gave the Ottomans wine and horses, sold them electricity and gifted them replaceable parts as I wanted to keep the war going.

After the war I disbanded all my regular units and my obsolete navy. I started construction of a modern navy and all 4 ports of entry. I put some cities on wealth as they had all the improvements anyway until I could get tanks and aircraft. The Hoover Dam was completed for the sweep of all industrial age wonders.

When I got motorized transportation I put my 5 most industrious cities on tank production. Meanwhile I was running 4 turn research at 70%. I continued trading and deal making and sold most of the formerly Ottoman wines. I reconfirmed my fur trade with Egypt. Then things changed.

Immediately after the Minoans took the last Ottoman city, Egypt declared war on Greece. The dirty rats! They had a wandering cav or two in my lands. They took a massive rep hit as they broke about 3 deals including a ROP and had units in my territory. I was very annoyed by this at the time but it did lead to a world war that cemented my diplomatic win. I signed up Zululand, Babylon, Persia and France to my side as they were all adjacent to far flung Egyptian outposts. I didn’t want Carthage in the war yet as they would get hammered by Egyptian tanks.

I finished building my modern navy and my battleships wiped out the Egyptian ironclads. I built 5 or so transports to invade Egypt. Meanwhile I discovered flight and built airports and bombers for my carriers. My free modern age tech was rocketry so I set research to fission. I went with 5 turn research for this one. I could produce 2500+ beakers/turn at 100% (for 4 turn research) but that would mean a deficit. So I dialed it down to 5 turns.

As my transports closed on the Egyptian shores, I asked Carthage to join in. Hannabaline must have hated Cleo intensely as it cost me nothing extra. Carthage brought in Spain, which I had tried and failed to do. Egypt got Atlantis to declare war on France which brought in Minoans and Rome via MPP. Rome broke their long standing alliance with Atlantis. The world was a mass of wars. Only backwards Russia stayed out of the wars.

My invasion force quickly seized some Egyptian cities and rushed airports. Now I could air transport tanks and infantry in. Egypt was a dead civilization walking. The fission research was completed and Hector (saved from the Ottoman war) hurried the UN. It didn’t take much to get the other civs gracious with me. Given that we were at war with a common enemy, had alliances, ROPs, and I had taken 3 enemy cities and smashed several enemy units only small gifts were needed. Also most of the civs were furious with each other for centuries of warfare. After reviewing Bamspeedy’s AI attitude article, I determined that a gift of 120 gold was adequate to get the maximum benefit (for the next two turns) so that’s what I gave.

The UN vote was a formality (except that through a mouse error I abstained – doh! - reload from autosave) and the final vote was 11 for Alexander, Xerxes voted for himself and Cleo abstained.

Diplomatic win in 1540AD with Firaxis score 4394 and Jason score of 5978. I think I could have handily won the space race but I didn’t have the time to put into the game.

It was a very interesting world and a very interesting game. However it ate up way too much time. I don’t think I can devote that much time to a game in a month again. There are too many other things to do.

Adrian

 

[RocknOats]

Congrats to All!

I too get to rise to the First Time Winner's platform! Man, I was so excited I called my Wife in to watch the launch!!! "Honey, Honey, look I built that!"

 

[RocknOats]

Dang it!

Again, I played PTW 1.21 and my Firaxis score was 4730, Jason 4974

WOOHOO!!!

 

[Athelstane]

PTW1.21f Open

My first try.

Thanks Cracker for a great game. When I first started I didn`t think I could win the game, I didn`t like the starting position. But as I played (and got attacked), I always seemed to get out of the wars with 4-5 cities more than when I started. A 30 turn war with Russia AND Celts ended with a glorious triumph and I started to eye a victory. After two costly wars with Egypt and the Hitties I changed my tactics going for domination, and launched my Spaceship in 1784. (Jason score just above 5000)

Now I`m ready to go home to Scandinavia.....

 

[sourboy]

Originally posted by RocknOats
I was so excited I called my Wife in to watch the launch!!! "Honey, Honey, look I built that!"

Take it from the married guys on here, you should be just as excited that your wife is cool with you playing!

Good job on your win too!

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Kemal
One turn after I had bought them against the Celts, I decided to do an investigation of an Ottoman city to see whether they had won a battle with a sipahi already, and was surprised to see they were only spending 40% of their taxes to science.
Further investigation of some of the other AI powerhouses yielded exactly the same result, and as I knew they were never going to get a modern age tech at 40%, I decided to give it one final try and give the Ottomans, who were indeed GA'ed, as much gpt as possible.

When I checked on them two turns later, they had indeed changed their science rate!
To 30% science, to be precise....

I had very similar observations. At some point I investigated all of the other AIs, and almost all of them were researching at exactly 40%. Even when I gave them gpt, this didn't change; I think they just accumulated the extra money, and eventually spent it on upgrades or rush builds. Whatever factors are affecting the rate at which the AIs decide to research, excess income doesn't seem to be one of them.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by CruddyLeper
Reason I ask is I completed final 2 spaceship parts the turn AFTER I disovered the Laser - AFAIK changing production the same turn a tech is researched is considered an exploit.

It seems to be common practice in GOTM, and it isn't listed on the exploits page, so I used it now and then in this game.

I think it would be nice if someone would update the GOTM exploits page to more explicitly say whether some borderline practices like this one are ok, or not.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Txurce
My very basic sense is that expanding as aggressively as possible is the key here, with the palace/FP setups falling in place as a result. The error that I and perhaps others make in this era is to split focus between unit-building and infrastructure. It may make more sense to not worry about building libraries, etc. until after the two cores are secured - because acquiring the two cores quickly generates more gold than a slower expansion, even with the benefit of additional infrastructure.

What I think isn't important, though - what do the players who entered the Middle Ages with barely a hiccup in their research rates think about this period in the game?

It looks like the fastest players did the opposite: concentrated on infrastructure in the first core, and placed a somewhat lower priority on establishing the second core. I know that in my game I was pretty much at my limit in terms of gold and workers in this period: if I had been gifted a complete second core, I would have been stretched too thin to make full use of it anyway, I think.

The only thing that would have made a big differerence, I think, would have been getting the Pyramids built by the Germans or Minoans. In my game, Germany built Great Library and Minoans built Great Lighthouse, both useless to me. I'm not sure if any of the other fast finishers got their hands on the Pyramids. I think this particularly would make a big difference in getting the second core up to speed quickly.