*Spoiler4* Gotm21-Melee - End Game Submitted

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Smirk
If your plans are to get a second core running and it has not yet been set up then spending time on that will pay off more than building more libraries. Think of it this way, a library in a core city only adds 50%, a new core city adds 100%.

I disagree. The core cities are already large in population, have other infrastructure like granaries and aquaducts built, and already have roads built around them. Doing all of these things in the new cities takes time. Eventually, the new cities will be 100% of the value of the old cities, but it takes a while to get to "eventually".

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by SirPleb
I preferred using Cavalry over Tanks in this situation because of war weariness as well as for the better ability to use lightning strikes. I had some war weariness but it was not a problem because: 1) Wherever possible I used the 3-move of Cavalry to take cities from a starting point outside their boundary, i.e. minimized the number of units inside enemy territory. The worst cases were invading the other continents, landing 20 Cavalry inside the enemy zone on the first turn to ensure taking one city as a beachhead. There were also some cases where the rough terrain meant leaving a number of units in enemy territory for one turn while approaching a city.

I definitely prefer attacking with move-3 units instead of move-2 units, because you can capture many more cities in a single turn. (The AI tends to build its cities so that you can jump from one to the next with 3 movement, but not with 2 movement.) But I don't think the war weariness effect is so significant. You only get 1 point of war weariness for having any number of units in enemy territory for one turn---it doesn't matter if it's one unit or 20 units. This is not very significant: most war weariness actually comes from the points you accumulate each time one of your attackers is killed. (Also, as you say, once you have marketplaces and 8 luxuries, war weariness just isn't that big a deal. You can still avoid civil disorder at the 2nd level of war weariness with no entertainment, and you could even survive at the 3rd level by either going to 10% entertainment, or else building a colosseum everywhere, or by getting control of Bach's Cathedral on your main continent.)

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Yndy
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.

Eliminating AIs only decreases the research cost if you're researching a tech that's already known to at least one other AI. I doubt you were doing that, as you could just trade for it.

 

[Drazek]

Thanks to DaviddesJ for interesting analysis! And thanks to everyone else for interesting posts, I'm hopefully improving my game play due to them!

And hopefully, I'm going to RAZE you all!

 

[Smirk]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ

I disagree. The core cities are already large in population, have other infrastructure like granaries and aquaducts built, and already have roads built around them. Doing all of these things in the new cities takes time. Eventually, the new cities will be 100% of the value of the old cities, but it takes a while to get to "eventually".

Thats depends how you "build" your second core, I just built my FP in the captured Minoan capital so had all the infrastructure my own cities had, and the science I got from a size 8 city without a library is more than I would get with a library in my original core city. However, thats a mote point since I had long since built libraries and universities in my original core when I finally built my FP. But rewind to say 800BC when you do not have that much infrastructure and pop, conquesting your second core and then spending money on their development versus rushing libraries in your core is the better choice. I would have done just that but my conquest was stalled by the minoan UU and I only got a few of his cities and not his capital.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Smirk
Thats depends how you "build" your second core, I just built my FP in the captured Minoan capital so had all the infrastructure my own cities had, and the science I got from a size 8 city without a library is more than I would get with a library in my original core city. However, thats a mote point since I had long since built libraries and universities in my original core when I finally built my FP. But rewind to say 800BC when you do not have that much infrastructure and pop, conquesting your second core and then spending money on their development versus rushing libraries in your core is the better choice. I would have done just that but my conquest was stalled by the minoan UU and I only got a few of his cities and not his capital.

Well, we'll just have to disagree. I don't find that, when I capture enemy cities, they have anywhere near the level of development that my own core has. The AI doesn't have enough workers, and doesn't use the ones it has effectively, so the territory is insufficiently developed (especially if you conquer very early). The cities are usually fairly big, but sometimes there's unavoidable starvation when you take them over. And the AI doesn't build nearly enough cities, nor close enough together, nor in the right places, so turning it into an efficient productive core, for me, seems to always involve founding lots of new cities. Finally, if it doesn't actually work, because with the available resources you can't actually acquire those cities and establish your FP, while with the same resources you actually could develop your original core, then putting the resources into an unsuccessful attempt to establish an early second core doesn't seem "the better choice".

Anyway, my main observation is that the fastest finishers all seem to have prioritized development of their original core, over very early establishment of a second core. Make of that what you will.

 

[SirPleb]

DaviddesJ and Kemal: Great launch dates!

Kemal, it looks like you had us all beat in the Middle Ages

 

[Yndy]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ
Eliminating AIs only decreases the research cost if you're researching a tech that's already known to at least one other AI. I doubt you were doing that, as you could just trade for it.

I see. Seems that I misread the formula. Thanks for showing me the light.

 

[Jove]

ptw1.14 predator

Arrrrr, I knew I was going to get whipped by the ultra-civvers, but I didn't think there would be so large a discrepancy. Congrats to all!

I guess I overbuilt my infrastructure for unnecessary science. I never do any calculations when I play Civ- I just eyeball everything and work on a set of principles to play by. Maybe I should reconsider that in light of SirPleb and others' analyses, and put the whole empire on a diet. Some of you guys turn this into a hard science, I appreciate that.
I failed to get any techs out of the AI in the Industrial or Modern ages. Their performance was so poor I guess I didn't have faith that they'd come through. I did try, but apparently not hard enough. With my tech rate set solidly at 4, I spent the endgame jacking up my score. I scored about 1/3 of my points in the final 30 turns or so. I really enjoyed taking over one AI civ after another in a single turn apiece.
Um, is there a new version of Mapstat for PTW? Mine wouldn't work- it said the world had one tile and my only rival was the Mongols. Hmmmm... so I played it safe on the domination limit, fought a not-so-fruitful war of spite against the Persians just for fun to retaliate against their ill-considered attack. I noticed that a few mech infantry fortified in a city on a hill can demolish an entire stack of unsupported modern armor.
I definitely learned some lessons this game from my own play and the posts of the other participants. I launched in 1325 with 7647 in-game points. If I'd got something other than Nationalism as a free tech, and had I used the 'lesson from Aeson', it woulda been 1300.... whatever. I'm happy with these results, I feel like I was competitive with at least most of the players. Arrrr!

By the way, technically my game isn't submitted- the server can't be found, and I just couldn't wait to check out the post. Honest, I am done, hope Cracker doesn't disqualify me!

 

[Svar]

PTW 1.21 Open

3rd Spoiler

My last report is all about wars, wars and more wars.

I'm not going to spend much time listing all the wars I wasn't involved in.

I had a 5 tech lead on my closest rivals when I went into the MA (1485). I got Fission which increased it to 6 and immediately started computers as I wanted Mech Inf and the Internet wonder.

1485 was also my third attempt to get a spy planted in Russia and this caused a war. I allied with Babylon, the Celts, and France against Russia. France brought in the Zulu and Egypt was already at war with Russia. This war was over by 1540 as I was fighting riflemen with tanks and all I really had to do was keep my allies from getting Russian land. The Celts did get one city.

During the war, the UN and SETI were built in Thermopylae. The UN was completed in 1490 and it never occurred to me to try to win at this point as I was going for a Spaceship win. Many turns later when I realized that it was possible I checked my 1500 save and thought that my Jason score would be about 5500. After I submitted and was checking my notes for this report I realized I forgot to add the early win bonus and discovered that the real Jason score would have been 6355.

Once the war in Russia was over I set my sights on Atlantis as they were hopelessly behind and adding nothing to my treasury. I think I was still laking 2 luxuries from being self-suffcient. Rome had already been at war with me and we were still in peace for 20 turns so I tried to plant a spy. That didn't work Rome declared again so I just diverted the invasion forces.

Since I still had a few turns left on my ROP with Atlantis I landed there with part of the forces and attacked just before the ROP expired. The rest of the invasion forces established Fort Apache on the coast just north of Rome. I discovered Synthetic Materials during this war and paused to upgrade the tanks in country before finishing the Romans and starting on the Atlanteans.

In 1625 before I was finished with Atlantis my friends the Minoans sneak attacked while we still had an ROP and lots of trade deals. They captured an undefended core city 7 tiles from their border and swept in from France to destroy 31 slave workers in former Russia who were asleep just waiting for something to do. This really made me mad so I eliminated the Minoans from the continent in about three turns. Unfortunately I also razed all their cities to recoup my lost slaves which I really didn't need at this point.

When the Minoan attack occured I had 120 MA, 40 of which were on the home continent along with 3 full armies filled with elite MAs and 2 empty armies awaiting the return of some of the elite MAs form the Roman continent. I don't know what they were thinking, they attacked with Cavalry.

By now everybody hates me so I sign a MMP with Persia and the Hittites just so I'll have some friends. Almost immediately the Celts declare war on me. That gets the Hittites and Persians involved. Next the Persians and Egypt get into a war that later involves me as well as the Hittities and Carthage which eventually drags me in.

I concentrate on the Celts and they are gone by 1690. Somebody allies with France against me during this time and I quickly eliminate them. My main attack force grows from 150 MAs in 1670 to 173 MAs in 1715 with 9 elite MA armies.

With nothing left on my continent I turn to Egypt. Peace is signed with Egypt in 1730 when all she has left is 2 small cities down at the south edge of her continent.

I could have launched the spaceship in 1750 but by this time so many Civs were gone and my military and tech lead were so overwhelming, I decided to try to milk the score. If anyone got close to launching I could just beat them to the punch.

I went to work on Carthage next and just before I eliminated both Egypt and Carthage in 1768 Babylon discovered fission and started the Manhatten Project.

Spain had a MPP with Egypt so when I attacked Egypt Spain declared war but were eliminated by 1776.

The Zulu were next on the list and were history by 1798. I was using 268 MAs and 19 elite MA armies by then.

Both Spain and Zululand were not settled by me because I thought I was near the domination limit. This opened the door for Persians to occupy old Spain and the Hittites and Babylon to ocupy old Zululand. In 1810 I checked the save game with MapStat and found that I was off by over 600 tiles. Back to old Spain and old Zululand for the overpowering Greek Army.

By 1840 the Hittites were gone and Babylon managed to get 1 city into old Hittite land.

In 1798 the Manhatten Project was completed by the Persians, so I started to build ICBMs hoping that they would provide a deterrant at least until I could get the Strategic Missile Defense built.

I completed SMD in 1846 and started the war with Persia then. At that time Persia had 12 ICBMs to my 21 as well as 5 parts of their spaceship built. Persia was building 4 more spaceship parts but were still researching Nuclear Power and had no oil so I had a real advantage if I could just get their capital. The only other Civ left in the game was Babylon and they didn't have Aluminum so I didn't worry about them. Babylon and Persia had also been at war for centuries.

Before the war with Persia started I had prepositioned 36 Explorers to cut resources and all roads to the capital. About half of my MAs and almost all of my armies were also in country. I destroyed 5 or 6 cities on the initial attack and managed to destroy 6 out of 12 ICBMs , now all I needed to do was see if Persia would use the 6 he had left faced with my 21 yet unused missiles. That was the first thing Persia did and I sweated all 6 as they all came to the same target in former Atlantis with Aluminum in the target area. I was suprised that all 6 were intercepted. It made up for those times when the RNG went against me like losing a wounded battleship to a badly wounded ironclad when I attacked what I thought was a sure thing.

After that it was just a mop-up action and peace was signed in 1876 with 1 small city left.

As I'm getting ready for a relatively easy conquest of Babylon, Aluminum is suddenly found inside the cultural borders of Babylon in 1882. Nuts, it is a good thing that 10 Explorers were left prepositioned inside Babylon for the last 200 years because we could just pillage most of their strategic resources. Fort Defiance is established on the coast in 1884 and Babylon is gone in 1900. Babylon managed to build 1 ICBM with that 1 turn of Aluminum but it was destroyed the same turn it was built. No nukes ever landed but it was very close.

Now all I had to do was end this thing. Calculations estimated that the highest Jason score would be obtained if I ran the game all the way out to 2050 so that was what I did. With 125 turns to play with I timed it so I could get simultaneous wins. I ended with 20k culture in Thermopylae, over 100k culture total although that may not be enough for a 2 to 1 advantage over Persia, a spaceship win and well over the domination limit as I was only 34 tiles from domination most of the last 125 turns and I added over 20 cities in 2049. My final Firex score was 17599 for a Jason score of 6405.

That was sure a lot of work for 50 Jason points but I really learned a lot in those last 200 turns. I also got a 20K culture win I may never do that again.

 

[Darkness]

Well, Svar, I think you may have milked yourself to a cow award...
Although I'm not sure if MOOnsinger left her cows in the stable this month.

 

[samildanach]

Well done Svar!
The milking award is likely yours. Also the unofficial PTW time played award as well. Although you may have some competiton from people who leave the game running all the time.

 

[Jove]

Arrrrr, the GOTM link is still not working. Could someone post the 'submit game e-mail address' in this thread so I can make this official? Pretty please?

 

[worlddomination]

As far as I understand it, you can always email your result to:

gotm_submit@civfanatics.net

 

[worlddomination]

Hold your tardy emails to gotm_submit@civfanatics.net! The gotm staff has a tough workload as it is to deal with and encourage all last-minute submitters to sit on there games until the server problems are fixed! See sticky: for this urgent message.

 

[Moonsinger]

Open [PTW] 1.21

Well, I finished my space ship in 1645 AD, about 15 turns away from achieving the 100K Culture which was really what I was shooting for. My modern age was uneventful. Since I reached the domination limit at the end of my industrial age, I didn't really want any war with Spain and Atlantis but they both constantly blackmailed me. Finally, I had no choice but teach Spain a lesson with about 50 modern armours and over 100 cavalries. Shortly after that, Atlas blackmailed me again (as shown the pic below). Since I had about 80 modern armours and 70 cavalries station on that continent, I refused to give in to his demand; he declared war this time. Btw, he was about 2 tech trees behide me and just learned the secret of Nationalism and Steam. Of course, his pikemans and riflemans didn't stand much of a chance against modern amours. The war ended 4 turns later. Shortly after that, I launched my spaceship and ended up with a Jason score of 9?51.

 

[da_greatest]

Open v1.29

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

My endgame did not go as planned. Due to RL time I had to end with a diplo victory instead of a SS victory. Spain built the TOE two turns before I was going to. They must have used a leader because I had been investigating cities. Their two techs were motorized transportation and computers. I was 2 turns from completing motorized transportation. I traded for it and entered the modern age. My free tech was rocketry.

At this point I was still at war with Russia. Everyone was annoyed with me but after signing alliances against Russia they were polite. I also signed some MPPs with civs that weren't at war. I got fission in 4 turns and built the UN with a leader. I got the diplo victory in 1230 AD with a firaxis score of 6526. This gave me a jason score of 8479.

If I had built the TOE it would have saved me 6 turns. Even with spain building the TOE I could have gotten a SS victory in 1395 if I had time.

 

[Sabre]

Open - Civ III 1.29

Whew that was a close one time-wise. A late start and a dubious decision to try for my first Domination win saw me gaming some long hours this week, but I've finished in time and I can finally catch up on my sleep!

I've only had time to post my first spoiler so I'll just give a quick and dirty recap of my game, then it's on to GOTM 22.

Middle Ages (Greece vs Germans) 10bc - 960ad

The Middle Ages were highlighted by the Germanic Invasion (130bc - 430ad.) The Greek swords and mercenaries made slow but easy work of the weak German archers and spears. My 2nd core was developed around Frankfurt, who built the Forbidden Palace brick by brick.

My free tech was Monotheism and I managed to get Feudalism, Engineering, Printing Press, Music Theory, Navigation and Democracy in trade.

We captured the Oracle in Berlin, Athens built Copernicus' Observatory and Smith's Trading Company, Sparta built Leonardo's Workshop and Thermopylae built Shakespeare's Theater.

Towards the end of the age we invaded the Ottoman Empire

Industrial Age (Greece vs Ottomans, Minoans and Russians) 960 - 1395

The Ottomans were nearly as easy as the Germans. The pace was much quicker due to our use of cavalry.

By 1140 the Ottomans were finished, but the bloodlust had taken hold of us and we immediately sent our cavalry into Minoa. The Minoans were no match for us. Their fabled Peltasts were outclassed. I'll take guns on horses over javelins any day. In 100 years the Minoans were history.

The Minoan War was over so quickly we matched our remaining cavalry with our new artillery and infantry divisions and marched our way across Russia. The pace slowed considerably with these new units but losses were nearly nonexistant. A good shelling reduced every city to rubble defended by redlined riflemen and the Russian Cossacks couldn't dent our well-armed infantry. As the Russian War was finishing we entered the Modern Age waaaaaay ahead of the other civs.

We captured the Pyramids and Sun Tzu's Art of War in Sogut and Magellan's Expedition in Istanbul (not Constantinople.) Athens built Newton's University and Theory of Evolution, Thermopylae built Universal Suffrage and Frankfurt built Hoover Dam with the help of our first leader Pyrrhus.

Nationalism was our free tech and we traded for Medicine and Sanitation after a long, long wait. These were the last techs the rest of the world would contribute. I was now on my own.

Modern Age (Greece and friends take on the world) 1395 -

By the Modern Age, Greece was the greatest nation in the world and dominated the northern super-continent. France, the Keltoi and the scattered Germanic cities were all that remained of the northerners and the French were the Greeks strongest ally. Many of the southern nations became unfriendly with the Greek superpower, especially the poor nations who could not afford the advanced Greek knowledge.

Alexander decided to bring these unfortunate people into the Greek nation and he began with the Hittites. The Hittites were by far the least enlightened group of people on the earth. They trembled in fear as the mighty Greek tanks rolled onto their land and into their cities but resistance was fleeting as they began to enjoy the luxuries of the Greek Empire. Corruption was strong but the people were happy.

Towards the end of the Hittite occupation, the Germans requested we move some workers off their land. This reminded Alexander that they existed. The Germans lasted only a few more years.

The Egyptians followed the Hittites. Cleopatra was the first nation to field infantry but she could not build up enough to stop the Greek juggernaut and she lasted only a little longer than her Hittite neighbors. The Egyptian War was remarkable in that it saw the formation of the Greek Alliance. France, Carthage, Spain and Rome all pledged allegiance to Alexander, granting alliances in all future wars and right of passage through their countries.

The Zulus had signed an MPP with the Egyptians and they foolishly declared war on Greece. Once the North Egyptians were dispatched our attention turned south. The Zulus were perhaps emboldened by their masses of infantry but they failed to account for our own advances as our tanks were all upgraded to modern armor.

With our cities pumping out modern armor at 6-10 per turn, we unleashed our forces across the globe. By 1535 we were at war with the Zulu, the South Egyptians, the Persians and the Keltoi. The Persians lasted the longest but all were ground to dust by 1585.

In 1580 we began our last invasions, sending forces into Babylon and Atlantis. The traitorous Romans turned on us and allied with their Babylonian friends. Fighting was initially very hard as reinforcements were slow to arrive. Scattered naval transport and a wave of war weariness were the chief causes. Our initial forces were able to hold their ground, however, and after some reorganization the new tanks arrived and renewed the advance.

In 1650 the Babylonians fell. The next turn the last Roman city fell, but Caeser managed to escape by boat. 1 turn later and Atlantis was finished. Atlantis' last city was enough to trigger Domination in the year 1665 and Alexander gazed upon his empire and wept, for there were no more lands to conquer.

 

[Sabre]

A few notes about my game:

I was surprised how well the Republic held up during my many, many wars. I remember only 1 instance where war weariness effected my plans and switching all my cities to the governor for happiness fixed the problem quick. Marketplaces and 8 luxuries is a wonderful thing. Weariness did slow my science pace a bit. I was down to about 6-7 turns towards the end with enough gold coming in to rush libraries, but really once I had my Modern Armor any other techs were just bonuses to my score.

I think this was my first game where I was at war nearly the whole time. The turns towards the end were taking me around 20 minutes just to make my moves. Handling 2-3 seperate fronts was very time consuming and I was afraid I would have to resort to a Diplomatic vote if I couldn't finish on time. Some really late nights solved the problem and thankfully the dirty traitorous Romans fell quickly.

The terrain was a huge factor in slowing my game down. Fighting through the Atlantian and Keltoi mountains was painfully slow and negated some of the Modern Armor's advantage.

I also have a theory on the "Melee" name of this game. I don't know if anyone pointed this out yet as I haven't had time to read all the spoilers, but I don't believe any resources more modern than coal were in the "Greek" territory. War was almost an essential element of this game. Combined with the huge lead in tech it was very tempting to keep pounding our hapless neighbors unless we were very focused on another goal (such as fastest spaceship.) Of course, I fell to the temptation and if I'd had more time I probably would have tried an all out conquest. It would have meant betraying the lovely Joan so it was probably for the best I finished as I did.

Lastly I'd like to share a pic of the hardest person in the world to please - my trade advisor. What more do you want?????

 

[Karasu]

Wow. This was one of the longest games I ever played (Civ3 1.29f Open, btw).


20k victory in 1824 AD, with 5902 points, whence a Jason score of 4456.


It was my first 20k game, and I liked it a lot. I found a very interesting mix of building and warfare that make for a challenging type of victory, if one tries to achieve the 'best' date.
Of course, the really good players will find this one as easy as any other type of victory, but I am talking about us mortals here...

I found this game especially instructive in a variety of ways, but before commenting, here is a view of Mycenae on the day of its glory (quite a bleak landscape for so marvellous a city...):

In summary, my game plan was:
1. slow tech pace until mid Industrial Age (where there are no wonders!)
2. quickly set up a powerful city to grab lots of great wonders
3. keep the AI in a semi-permanent state of war
4. cross my fingers and hope for a few early great leaders

The odd points were very satisfactory, while the even ones were not.

Mistakes
1. I should have built my wonders in a coastal city. Not being able to get the Colossus early on really hurt my finish date.
Athens was in a fairly good position, but I didn't want to use the capital as culture city nor did I want to rely on a great leader to move the Palace later on.

2. Given that the geography was probably not ideal for an ultra-fast 20k win, I should have been a lot more effiecient in the first turns. I really took too long to get Mycenae going, with the result that the early wonders were built later than I liked.
This delay also dragged onto some MA wonders, whose doubled culture I could not use just for a few turns.

3. I stayed in Monarchy for a very long time, in order to support a massive army.
I think I should have gone to Republic - Democracy earlier, to make more wonders available earlier (to me alone, of course...).

4. Absolutely NO great leaders until around 800 AD. When he arrived I had no use of him, so I created and Army to open up for Heroic Epic.
More came later on (you can see it by the timeline of wonder building), but at a certain point they were close to useless.

But then, there were also some good things...

What I liked
1. I managed to keep the others' tech pace really slow by securing the Great Library, doing little selected trading and keeping them constantly at war.
So much so in fact that, together with a ruthless resource denial strategy (see below), this is the state of the SSS (TM) race at 1824 AD:

2. I also managed to time the prebuilds in Mycenae with the technologies, so that (with the single painful exception of the Ancient Era) there were was only one cascading on Sun Tzu and Leo when I built Copernicus.


3. I mean, this is my first 20k game ever! I had never been able to build so many wonders, and all in a single city.
At the end of the game, Mycenae was producing the amazing (for me) amount of 137 culture points per turn, with the following (long) list of items:

Temple 1700 BC
Library 50 BC
Cathedral 400 AD
University 720 AD
Colosseum 930 AD
Res. Lab 1685 AD

Great Library 800 BC
Hanging G. 90 BC
Sistine 330 AD
Bach 700 AD
Shakespeare 840 AD
Copernicus 850 AD
Adam Smith 980 AD
Newton 1100 AD
ToE 1365 AD
Un. Suff. 1370 AD
Hoover Dam 1430 AD
Manhattan 1615 AD
UN 1620 AD
SETI 1675 AD
Internet 1690 AD
CFC 1745 AD
Longevity 1764 AD

FP 490 AD
Heroic Epic 910 AD
Mil. Academy 1230 AD
Int. Agency 1425 AD
Wall Street 1450 AD
Pentagon 1520 AD
Batt. Medicine 1570 AD
Apollo 1760 AD



Other comments.

Wars
were the most fun, and longest, part of the game.
I had never built so massive an army -but then, I needed to do something while I was waiting for the culture points to accumulate.
The only problem is that, at the end, I couldn't really move all those units around.

Anyway, I started fighting Germany around 650 BC and always stayed at war with at least one other civ ever since.

I fought Germany, Minoans and Ottomans for expansion. In the meantime, I picked Spain, Rome and at least one more civ at turn to keep them in the party with me. When I looked at the replay at the end of the game, I realized that they had been really busy...

So, this game was indeed a "mediterranean melée": a crowded world with everyone fighting against everyone else...

This was a very instructive game on trades and alliances.


Resources
As soon as I entered the Industrial Age (with Nationalism as the free tech), I spent a few turns researching Communism, which I promptly gave to everyone. I thought that this would be the final touch: they would all change government and basicly shut down research.

It didn't happen! It took a long time for Persia, Zulu, Keltoi, Babylonians and finally Carthage to do that.
But Egypt never left Democracy, and was actually researching fast enough to get to Modern Ages...

So, as soon as I discovered Rocketry, I looked for all the Aluminium spots on the map and I started installing (with brute force...) my own settlements there.

I finished the game with 10 excess Aluminium, the Keltoi having the only two left in the world. I had a few units on their borders, of course, but in the end it was not necessary to use them.

Of course, I could have followed Yndy's strategy -"kill 'em all and wait" (TM), but I was feeling like doing some experiments.
And it was very nice to see Cleopatra with the StupidSpaceShip techs but nothing to build it with...


the other civs
In my game, Rome lasted quite a long time.
They were eventually eliminated around 1000 AD, but hadn't I started a war with them and got alliances with half of the world, I think they would have survived.

Atlantis suffered almost the same fate. In fact, the southern part of their peninsula was a major battleground between them, Rome and Spain.
In the end, they barely survived with a couple of cities on a tiny island.

Russia was unintentionally eliminated as a result of my trying to set the world against the French (who at the time were developing too fast). Russia was not really a menace -slow tech, few resoruces.
As soon as they were gone, I managed to implement my original plan. It was amazing to see how little time it took to Keltoi and Egypt to wipe France.

In the end, Spain Persia and Egypt were the most succesful nations in this game, with Carthage and Zulu managing to almost keep the pace.
After Greece, of course!



P.S. Mad-bax, what a game!