TSG45 Game in Progress

[methinkso]

I had to stop in here pretty quick. I saw around turn 85 that nobody had bothered picking up the great library yet. I was shocked. My last emperor game I tried beelining for that wonder and someone else nabbed it before turn 40. Since I was currently bee-lining towards Guilds for some silly Polder action, I decided to try going for it and to time my GL pop for right after finishing Currency. And so, on turn 98, I finished building the Great Library and got Guilds as my free tech. Crazy AI, can't believe they let that wonder go for so long.

Of course, on that same turn, I saw a Russian army pop onto my doorstep. She DoW'd me the next turn. Now things should get interesting.

It's a shame the rest of my play has been so sloppy though. Forgot to research masonry early enough to clear the marsh on the sugar, forgot to research trapping before moving my worker to the furs to the south, and Hanoi refused to build a worker in a reasonable amount of time. Bleh. Worker woes.

 

[AlienSexFilth]

Hi guys. Been away from CivFanatics for quite a long time. G&K made me come back to CiV and this is my first go (ever) in a GotM. Kudos to all involved in setting this up!

To answer the basic questions
1. I wanted my capital to grow fast and nice and tall, so I wanted to AVOID marshes. Why? Because I wanted to save marshes for polders and polders would not come until Guilds and I didn't know yet if I would go guilds before or after Educations, I decided to go NE, settle on coast/river/grassland and be able to farm floodlands, which could later turn into polders.
2. As my capital was not super rich in luxuries and they were hard to get (2nd ring crab and marshed sugar, 3rd ring crab) but having two stones, I decided to go religion for starters,hoping for stone circles. Not knowing the surroundings either, scouting was top priority. So my build was 2x Scouts, followed by a shrine.. which takes us to
3. My two scouts and the lonely warrior gave me valuable info about surroundings and opponents. My tech was Pottery->Mining->Masonry->Archery->Calendar->Fishing->Writing. At that point, I had a good knowledge of my continent and started to form my greater strategy.
4. As I expanded south for my second city (near the lots of sea resources, Furs & 2 stones), a DOW from Cathy was inevitable. 4 Archers stationed in and around Rotterdam (is that the second city name or Utrecht?) made short work of her army of warriors, archers, catapults & spears. I think there was some fighting between Boudicca and Napoleon. At some point I accepted an offer from Izzy to go against Napoleon. War begun, never saw any french units coming my way but Napoleon kept asking peace terms with ridiculous claims. Peace came later on for nothing.
5. The excess food and lack of production made me think Tradition for starters. After tradition was done and renaissance being quite some techs away, I decided to go guilds first to open Medieval and Commerce. Great admiral would help meeting the other continent faster than caravels, +5 production for all my coastal cities (all of them) would help too, cheaper buildings with Big Ben and more happiness to grow taller seemed all like solid choices.

Over all the game goes quite nice and peaceful. I have founded the second religion after Izzy, Taking City-state rep and Mosques for extra faith (since I had a small empire). I enhanced with Religious Texts and extra %production (Religious Community?). I am teching a bit slow but it seems like a sci victory is on it's way.

PS: Will later post on my save as well.

 

[Browd]

Got to turn 152 last night and decided to post a mid-game report before finishing tonight.

Settled in place, on the hill for production. Warrior exploration confirmed that the coast was a few tiles away in basically every direction, but I really like riverside hills for the production and immediate gold and I find a coastal start doesn't give as much room for my capital to grow and have room for academies.

Build order was scout, a few turns on monument, and then shrine/finish monument after Pottery. Continued to research Calendar and built Stonehenge. Great Library went before I even researched writing and I got beat to Hanging Gardens by 3 turns (used the consolation gold to help buy a workboat in my second city to get some crabs, so not a complete waste). Ended up getting the Pyramids (I don't usually bother, but they were still around and they are not much more expensive than two hard built workers). The engineer points from SH and Pyramids meant I spawned a natural engineer just as The Oracle became available, so I bulbed that in between turns building the NC. Only other world wonder so far in my capital is the Great Mosque, but I'm 11 turns away on Chitchen Itza.

Had the third or fourth pantheon (quarry faith) and was first to found and enhance. Took Church Property and Pagodas at founding and world wonder faith and itinerant preachers at enhancement. Bought four rounds of missionaries (screwed up and used one twice on Almaty--doh!) and at turn 152, I have 15 cities with followers, with Spain is the only other surviving civ on my continent with a religion (haven't enhanced yet, and they only have their holy city). The Celts founded, of course, but they are gone, victims of Nappy's aggression. Someone on the other continent has a religion with 10 cities.

Even with the hill start, things developed slowly. Stole a worker on turn 26 from Marrakech, and set him to working the sugar tile, but that took forever. Sold the sugar and bought a settler; second city was settled on the furs to the SW, next to the desert, with two stone, two crabs and a fish in easy range. Aren't all that many desert tiles there, but I built Petra anyway (mainly for the free amphitheater and later culture boost -- there are no cultural CSs on this continent!).

Third city was to the SE, at the base of the three desert tile peninsula. Thought about doing Petra there, but production was bad and I felt fortunate just to build a workboat to start the sell crabs/buy workboat/sell crabs rhythm.

Fourth city was going to be down south, by the copper deposits, but while my settler was en route the Celts beat me to it and, in retrospect, I'm glad they did, because France steamrolled them like nothing - Nappy has five founded cities and three puppets (2 Celtic and 1 Russian). I'm doing my best to play nicey-nice with Nappy, at least for now. My first (and so far only) RA is with him, due to pay off in a few turns.

Rather than scrap my settler, I ended up founding my fourth city in the far west, by the gems. Grew slowly because of poor food supply, but it's up to 5 pop and building a university, so it should make a contribution.

Science? This is a science victory condition, right? That has been slow. Napoleon was first to the Renaissance, and I'm researching Acoustics now (9 turns away) with 11 turns to my next policy, so Rationalism is next. But, between the free policy from Oracle, slow getting libraries up, and research path digressions (Guilds for polders and Compass for harbors -- neither of which is normally part of my science path), I had to take two policies in Commerce -- the opener (for the super bank in my capital) and Naval Tradition (for the GrAdm, who I sent off to find the other continent -- he's met Geneva and the Swedes, so two civs and some number of CSs to go). Anyway, a few turns ago I bought and populated universities in my capital and second city, will be buying a third in three turns (I'm earning 57 gpt), and am hard building a fourth in my youngest and smallest city (arguably should have done it the other way around, buying in my smallest cities and having my capital do the hard building, but I'm working on CI right now). So, I'm at 97 bpt on turn 152 - gag! - but things are headed in the right direction.

 

[AlienSexFilth]

Hey guys. Last night I got back in the game to play a couple of turns but it crashed. Can I start again from my save? I am asking because afaik, replaying turns is not allowed..

 

[Totibbs]

Hey guys. Last night I got back in the game to play a couple of turns but it crashed. Can I start again from my save? I am asking because afaik, replaying turns is not allowed..

In the new game, you have to replay the lost turns as close as possible. Especially the mistakes
For example, you started producing the Great Library and on 3 turns before completion, you get the message that the AI was just a little bit faster. Suddenly your computer crashes. You replay your lost turns, but hey, now you focus the Great Library-production city on Production instead of defeault...

 

[leif erikson]

Hey guys. Last night I got back in the game to play a couple of turns but it crashed. Can I start again from my save? I am asking because afaik, replaying turns is not allowed..

If a crash occurs, you should load the last autosave, you should have autosaves set to one (so it saves at each change of turn), and replay from that point as closely as you can remember in the same order you originally played. Please keep track of the game turn and date of the crash and send a Private Message to the staff person who posted the game so that we can take your crash into account when we review the results.

 

[Halcyan2]

086-090 - The life of great prophet Zoroaster. He was born in Amsterdam but moved to Rotterdam there he founded Zoroastism (Stone Circles, Tithe, Cafedrals).

Interesting. I am very curious as to why you founded your religion in your second city. Was it so that city could get culture quickly with a Cathedral? Or were you positioning your holy city so that your religion spread quicker?

The downside is that you lose a few turns moving your Prophet (which could mean that another civ founds a religion before you and takes the beliefs you wanted). Also, having your holy city closer to the other civs does make it a more vulnerable target for Prophet conversion.

 

[kamikazees]

Played to turn 158 and this game is a giant clusterfrack for me. I will be lucky to finish before T300.

I settled in place because the other sites around looked like poor production sites. I considered going for the gems to the far west, but there was no food there. Settled my second city S of my capitol.... um, there were no other spots to really settle. The SE location would have been good with Petra, but I did not settle there because I was afraid I would fail to get it. I went Tradition and only wanted 4 cities.

So I settled the third city SW of the 2nd city... right in Russia's face. We were friends, right? Wrong. That was a mistake. So why not make another? I settled ANOTHER city SE of the 3rd one, right in Boudicca's face.

Then everyone hated me for settling too many cities and in their faces. France DoW'd me. I DoW'd Boudicca. Russia bought up a whole bunch of land and broke my trade routes. I DoW'd her. War everywhere. So I said "forget it" and wiped them all off the map.

Apparently I don't play well with others. That's not good for a science game. Now Spain is the only one left. She hates me, but is really too far away for me to care. She's also very weak. I'm about to get Astronomy to see if I can make some friends on the next continent. We'll see...

 

[killerloop]

Turn 50:
Settled on left hill to chop start hill.
Build order: worker-buy scout- switch shrine-buy settler-finish worker-GLib-buy settler-build settler-Pyrs
Popped 100gld and pop from 2 huts
4 Cities now, 10 pop, positive happiness.
1st pantheon to go was Stone Circles on turn 25(GRRRR!), must be Boudica. I think this will be game-breaking, for fast finish!
1 Ally.

 

[flairin]

Turn 50:
Settled on left hill to chop start hill.
Build order: worker-buy scout- switch shrine-buy settler-finish worker-GLib-buy settler-build settler-Pyrs
Popped 100gld and pop from 2 huts
4 Cities now, 10 pop, positive happiness.
1st pantheon to go was Stone Circles on turn 25(GRRRR!), must be Boudica. I think this will be game-breaking, for fast finish!
1 Ally.

What I did in my game was just to buy the monument... that allowed me to start getting faith points earlier and build more early units so as to bully CS for money. Folks keep on talking about stone circles so I think I will replay to try out this pantheon. I took Desert Folklore

 

[DGDobrev]

Well, I finally decided to try the Games of the Month

I admit it is an interesting challenge, and I really wanted to play the Dutch sooner or later. It is an interesting map, but my first try didn't go so well. I settled on the coast and played the game OCC until NC was finished. Then I beelined to Guilds and the game was going really well - albeit a bit slow in comparison to a Babylon or a Korea game for example. I managed to go wonder crazy too - I nabbed all important wonders (GL, HG, HS, Chichen Itza, Alhambra, Sistine, Pisa, PT, etc.) and with the +2 faith from WW, the game was looking good for me. Unfortunately, it wasn't going well for the others...

Celts were the first to be obliterated by Russia, followed by France (good bye 250 gold for RA) and then Sweden (bb 250 more). Cathy understandably disliked me (as I was always in the top 3), so that pretty much destroyed my RA options, as the only ones I managed to RA with were Spain, and after I got the Great Admiral from policies, England. Rome didn't want to sign a DoF with me for a long time... So around T220 I am still a tech away from Flight, which made me call it a day. Even though I enjoyed playing with Polders and see my capital grow every few turns, having no research partners is a big setback and I do not see myself winning before T300 at this pace, which is just too damn long.

I will try it again these days. It is a fun game. As I gave up, I won't post results. And since I am new to GOTM, I am wondering - am I supposed to play this game from start to finish in one go??? Saving the game for a break and reloading will show, and I rarely have more than 1-2 hours a day to play a game.

 

[leif erikson]

Well, I finally decided to try the Games of the Month

welcome to the GOTM.

I will try it again these days. It is a fun game. As I gave up, I won't post results. And since I am new to GOTM, I am wondering - am I supposed to play this game from start to finish in one go??? Saving the game for a break and reloading will show, and I rarely have more than 1-2 hours a day to play a game.

Please do post in the After Action thread what you do in your replay and tell us what you did differently and how it worked out.

 

[tommynt]

am playing this, but feel like i do very bad and finsih time ll proly be horrible.

Not sure where my mistakes are but even with seemingly big cities my science progress suckz.

Well last science game I played was with babs and guess comparing any other game to a game with them makes a bad look

 

[Half Nelson]

Playing this along the lines of the 6-city core described by iggymnr. Going OK, but research rate is extremely slow. Settled 6 cities by turn 70, most by sea to get food and as much production as possible. Took GotS as pantheon and Tradition starter / full Liberty for early policies, but low culture (no culture CS!!!!!!!) means that policies are now dripping in very slowly. I am very popular with Military CS who have gifted me a large army which I have used to take out the Celts and trim down France and Russia. I completed 1 early RA with France but the next 2 produced zero beakers each (I presume because the AIs denounced me before the RA completed:- I received the “RA complete” notification but no beakers). I have thus decided to continue without RA, although I only have one DoF in any case! I took 1-city happiness and 15% production for my religion, but made an error by enhancing before my religion had spread so have spent much effort in holding back the Celtic faith (although the Celts themselves are long-gone). Losing your native pantheon by spread of foreign faiths is a pain, but I now have reversed the process by fairly ruthless razing of heathen cities. City growth has been OK and I have 5 GS on hold (I used the Liberty finisher for an Academy) and should get another 2 (plus 2 from Hubble) to roll up the tech tree, but it will not be a fast finish.

 

[Maxym]

It took me 15 GS to finish the tech tree, but I had a 3 city core and should have settled my 1st GS. So low raw science led to smaller bulbs

 

[ense7en]

Really enjoying this game.

I have a massive capital due to polders, and have enjoyed relative success with keeping the nearby city states friendly or allied.
As there are a couple militaristic ones nearby i've been supplied with units from them almost the entire game and barely built any military.

I'm sure my finish time is going to be terrible, but i've been well ahead in tech since Medieval onwards. Unfortunately i've not been able to do much for RAs due to not many friends and having to pay the AI hugely just to sign them.

I have been able to maintains trading/selling lux with pretty much all the AI all game though, to fully exploit the Dutch UA

 

[Hieschen]

Hi all,

tried my first GOTM. BAck to CIV after an absence of a few years (basically skipped CIV IV and started this august with V / G&K)

So far so average.... Settled 2 to NE from beginning spot, got of to a nice start, was then rushed by 3 (!!) barbs who trashed my improved quarries, sigh, got 1 worker out of it though when I destroyed the camps. Around turn 130, 4 cities, full tradition, liberty in progress (will switch to patronage or commerce I think, not finish liberty)
Was beaten to the GL by an unknown civ. Got Hanging gardens, Pyramids, Oracle, Petra. I am friend with all (should find me some money and education to start getting this cashed in through RA)
Lot of small wars, but i am able to keep out of them. I have happiness problems though as the cities grow at an amazing speed. Under control, but i am nevertheless surprised. Got now 4 polders up and running.

Seems fun enough for the moment. Find my prod a bit thin though if i look through my different cities.

Bye

Pat

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Glad you joined and are taking the challenge. After you complete and submit your game, please compare your game and ask questions. These folks will help you learn and improve your game. Best of luck.

 

[Arnold_T]

been offline a few weeks, so got started on this late. hope I finish by the deadline.
Wasn't sure about where to settle and what to do about polders, etc. so I just took the default Settle in Place option. Initial builds were scout, worker, monument. saw that I needed a breadth of techs to get to the initial luxs in the area, so researched mining and masonry before pottery. also delayed writing quite a while too, so much so that at one point I was trying to establish an embassy with France to fulfill a CS quest and couldn't figure out why I wasn't able to do it. doh! I hadn't researched Writing yet!

My scout stumbled upon a +20 faith ruin around t20, which gave me the second Pantheon, took stone circles. Also built Stonehenge to fulfill a CS quest, so my religion is already established and enhanced at t100. took Tithe, +production, Pagodas, and religious texts for faster spreading. maybe should have taken interfaith dialog since this is a science game, but I don't know how well that works.

Diplomacy has been kinda funny this game. Was a long time before I met Spain (t60?) and shortly after meeting her, she was pissed at me for settling too close to her(?!), and I am way farther than 10 hexes away from any of her lands, so I don't get it. maybe she was Friends with Russia or Celts? I'm also taking diplo hits from everyone for the lie I told to Russia about my army "just passing by". guess I should have just declared war on her when asked, since I ended up declaring next turn anyway. I took Moscow, and settled for peace a few turns later. would have liked to get a sweeter peace deal, but she really didn't have much to offer. moving on Edinburgh now. She begged for peace, but it wasn't a good enough deal, so I'm going to take her capital. The neighbours aren't very cooperative, maybe I'll just have to wipe everyone out on this continent and find better friends overseas.

Culture is slow. I initially thought I would go all Tradition, but after seeing the land, and how far I wanted my first cities to be, and how I would probably end up with more than four cities, and probably end up with some annexed capitals, I wasn't sure about Traditon, and thought maybe Liberty would be better. I still haven't decided . I went with the Tradition opener, then the Liberty Opener, then the Free Worker, Representation (to help culture hit of expansion), and Republic for production. Then I switched back to Tradition to pick up Aristocracy for the Wonder boost. Guess I'll switch back to Liberty and finish that off.

I didn't a have a library in the capital for a long time. Miraculously finished the Great Library there (after Stonehenge) around T75 I think. finished libraries in all three of my other cities around T80, and got NC done around T90 I think.

My strategy now is focus on science first, heading for Education before Polders. but wait, I first need to pick up Iron Working, since a CS gave me some Iron, but I'm unable to upgrade my warriors, since I don't know the tech!
I'm number one in Military strength, so I think I will also do some conquering and puppet some cities while focusing on research at home.

situation after t100, at start of t101 ...

Spoiler :