WOTM 01 - Final Spoiler

[Gyathaar]

This was my second GOTM. The first one was back when there were civ2 GOTMs

There are still civ2 GOTMs you know..

 

[EEO]

Contender HOF-Mod, conquest victory 1800 AD, score 86113 (base 6709) .

A late spoiler for WOTM1. I didn’t think my game was worth a spoiler, but as I obtained a gold medal for it, maybe someone will be curious about what happened.

In this game, I went as usual for score. I prefer score to fastest finish, because I consider the game more balanced when going for score. In fastest finish, you tend to sacrifice everything for speed. In score, speed is also important, but, as you have to take care of your population , it requires more balance between the different aspects of the game.

Nevertheless, to get high score with the current formula you don't have many strategic choices (due to preponderance of the population factor) :

• you must take as many cities as you can up to the land domination limit
• you must research Biology
• you must, at some time, transform all used land tiles into farm or windmill
• you must let your cities grow while the ‘score if you win’ grows - this process is known as "milking": you delay your victory to let your score grow-
• eventually, you have to win by conquering all remaining cities in one turn and build Hanging Gardens wonder
• (if you are maniac perfectionist, you can make settlers with cities that grow too slow and build new cities with them in the last turn ... but this is very boring)

Of course, all that has to be done as fast as possible. Outside the milking phase, the main differences between high score conquest and fastest conquest are :

• the necessity to keep a very strong economy as well for researching Biology as for keeping the maximum of cities
• the importance to manage cities in order to let the population grow (i.e. some buildings and some civics are more valuable than with fastest conquest)

If you want more than a summary on this strategic view, it is described with details and emphasis by Hendrikszoon in GOTM 1&2 spoilers ...

Coming back at WOTM1.
For the first time ever , I took time to play a complete game with the same settings before WOTM1. My intent was to have a practical knowledge of Warlords new features and of the particular settings of WOTM1. It certainly helped me to highlight the interest of the Vassal new feature: by accepting the capitulation of one your opponent at some point, you can gain more in score than if you conquer him totally. This happens generally when the cities left have a weak potential of population and would take too much time to conquer. On the other hand, the test game gave me a false impression of easiness, due to "high" sea level setting. Without any optimization or milking I won the test game at 1580 AD with a score not far from 100K ! Needless to say : when I just finished WOTM1 in 1800 AD with 86K I did not expect it to be a good result in comparison with the test game. But, in fact, WOTM1 was much more difficult than my test game because it was a false "high" sea level. Several spoilers already signaled it, but the quantity of land in WOTM1 does not match at all the "high" sea level setting. Maybe Ainwood has an idea of what happened …

Now the key points of the game:

Turn 25 (3000 BC) Contact made: Korean Empire
Turn 57 (1720 BC) Civil Service (by The Oracle)
Turn 77 (950 BC) Utica founded
Turn 84 (775 BC) The Great Library
Turn 94 (525 BC) Hadrumetum founded
Turn 111 (100 BC) Optics
Turn 121 (150 AD) Contact made: Zulu Empire & Arabian Empire; The Parthenon
Turn 124 (225 AD) Hippo founded; Contact made: English Empire
Turn 126 (275 AD) Great Scientist born in Carthage (to Academy)

Before the Great Scientist, 3 Great Prophets were born ! It was very unlikely and I considered it as very bad luck. Retrospectively, as two of them were converted into super specialists, I think that the production gained was very useful …

Turn 130 (375 AD) Kerkouane founded
Turn 131 (400 AD) Guilds
Turn 135 (500 AD) Leptis founded
Turn 142 (640 AD) Engineering
Turn 154 (880 AD) Contact made: Russian Empire
Turn 157 (940 AD) Contact made: Celtic Empire; Astronomy

Here we are. I could have obtained Astronomy before by beelining to it after Optics. In this case, I would have begun Zulu war sooner with Macemen and Catapults but without Knights Grenadiers or Trebuchets. I think it would have been better. You will see why …

Turn 170 (1100 AD) Chemistry

At this point, the strategic idea for conquest is the following:

• Build 3 armies of about 12 units each and the Galleons to transport them.
• The 12 units of one army are a mix of Knights, Grenadiers and Trebuchets.
• The first army has to vassalize 3 civilizations (in this case Zulu, Arabian and English civilizations in North and North-East).
• The second army has to vassalize 2 civilizations (in this case Russians and Celts in the West). It should ideally begin when the first army attacks its second civilization.
• The third army has to vassalize the remaining civilization (in this case Koreans on the same continent) . It should ideally begin when the first army attacks its third civilization and the second army its second civilization.
• Each time an army suffers a loss, it has to be replaced in priority. Moreover, low cost units (as Archers or Longbows) must be build in order to defend conquered cities. Of course, the transport of replacement and defense units is made by Galleons after they have unloaded the attacking units.

What happened was lightly different, but not so far from it.


Turn 179 (1190 AD) War declared: Zulu Empire

Just before I DOW Zulu’s, they discovered Feudalism. Not a surprise at 1190 AD and my army was certainly able to face Longbows instead of Archers, but I was unhappy because it meant more losses, more time and therefore lower score …

Not far from this moment, I discovered that Saladin had built the Hanging Gardens … That meant about 15K lost for the score. Never, never would I have imagined at this moment that this game could win a gold medal …

Turn 195 (1350 AD) War ends: Zulu Empire

Stopping the War. Shaka refuses to capitulate, but no time to spent for capturing his remaining cities. With five cities lost, he should never be dangerous again.


Turn 200 (1400 AD) Biology

A key target, but too soon. I am not able to use its whole power now, because production level must remain high with third army, losses and defense units still to build for incoming wars.


Turn 202 (1420 AD) War declared: Russian Empire

Turn 207 (1470 AD) War declared: Arabian Empire

Turn 210 (1500 AD) Stalin (Russian Empire) capitulates

The easiest war. Stalin was very weak.


Turn 218 (1540 AD) War declared: Celtic Empire

Turn 224 (1570 AD) Saladin (Arabian Empire) capitulates

The hardest war. Many losses, much time, but excellent cities captured.


Turn 230 (1600 AD) War declared: English Empire

Turn 231 (1605 AD) War declared: Korean Empire

The first and the third army have some delay regarding the second army, but we are not too far from the primary schedule. Moreover, a new target appears for the second army after the Celtic Empire. The barbarian cities in the South-West.


Turn 238 (1640 AD) Brennus (Celtic Empire) capitulates

Turn 245 (1675 AD) Churchill(English Empire) capitulates

Turn 247 (1685 AD) Wang Kon (Korean Empire) capitulates


All other civilizations, but one (Zulu’s) are vassals. Winning is possible at anytime, but it is necessary to delay it, while the final score can grow. It is the milking phase. Meanwhile, most of the land tiles have been transformed into farm or windmill. At that moment, if I remember correctly, the ‘score if you win’ is 70K.

Turn 269 (1795 AD) War declared: Zulu Empire. Zulu civilization has been destroyed.

The ‘score if you win’ seemed to stabilize around 86K. It was time to end.


Turn 270 (1800 AD) Carthage wins a conquest victory.