WOTM 01 - Final Spoiler

[jprc]

First try with GOTMs, and with a simple adventurer level.
I am far far Shrek-style-far-far-away from all the pro. I just achieve a time victory with something like 4700 points (louis XIV). I know, I know...

Besides being a tourist compared to all pros in this forum, I made several costly mistakes:
- I am used to play Marathon, and started Civ4 at Epic before switching (and staying) to marathon speed. Last time I played and finished normal speed was with Civ3 … 3 years ago… It is incredible how fast “normal” looks like: just the time to awake, and “game over”!!
- Having never tried this kind of gentleman-agreement competition and tested some other maps, I supposed that those who created the map were tortuous minds, evil experts in game design and above all, sadistic civfanatics. Hence, I was expecting the sky to fall on my head, volcans, earth quakes, and hordes of big bad guys submerging my cute little civ. Nothing happened, and I was more defended than Fort Knox, when suddenly I noticed “100 turns left” Holly sh-t and mer-e! In 100 turns, I conquered Brennus, destroyed Stalin and Shaka, and … 2050AD…
- Soooooo happy to start with a worker, I transformed Carthage as a Wonder machine. I think I have built in it 50 or 60% of all available wonders, producing around 130000 cultural points in this city, and discovering 3 religions!!! I enjoyed it so much, that I forgot to do other things!!!!

But… I am VERY happy:
- I had really great time with this, and I am amazed with the design of this map: not impossible, but requiring a bit of audacity and methods. A timed chess game.
- I thought this kind of game (GOTM) was reserved for an elite representing 0.5% of the Civ players that are not all internet-forum fanatics, and I was wrong: the map is enjoyable whatever level you are (and for also higher levels if I believe the posts above – achieving Space race victory in 1848AD for 24,769 points is something looking so “far-far-away” from my tiny universe&#8230
- The concept behind it is seducing: it is like playing golf: you can easily cheat but the true pleasure at the end is the self-esteem you harvest from your true result.

H.A.P.P.Y !!

(I hope my English is understandable)

 

[RobertTheBruce]

Well ,I botched a fast conquest victory attempt. I had played a couple of quick test games with better land and 2 close neighbours for fast conquest. I attempted a similar path but ran into problems. Avoiding Civil Service for a fast Astronomy for conquest gave an okay date (520AD) but I see many people did better researching directly after a slingshot. My city placement wasn't very good so I didn't grow my cities for research quickly. I should have built the Parthenon when I realized that an early rush of a nearby civ wouldn't be possible.

My plan was to use two great people for astronomy and a third (great scientist or engineer) for Engineering to get the extra road movement and trebuchets. I had lost focus on my great people points and didn't get engineering until 880AD. Civil Service(maces), Literature(Heroic Epic) and Feudalism(capitulation) quickly followed. Conquest by overwhelming the AIs with a steady stream of city raider units. I kept researching aimless techs and had Chemistry by the end of the game.

I was very slow attacking Wang Kon (580AD-1070AD destroyed) and he wouldn't capitulate until I had my stacks outside his last city. Swords and cats were fine against protective archers although the number of hill cities and a few bad RNG rolls really slowed me down. Crossbows prevented his few HwaChas from causing any real damage.

The new plan was to push through Shaka (1080-1300AD capitulation) and start Saladin (1310-1410AD capitulation) with a stack of maces and trebuchets from Carthage and then split my troops. A core of veteran units healing in Ullundi joined reinforcements from the Carthaginian core to galleon hop around Russia (1390-1510 capitulation) while the Korean cities coming out of anarchy would provide reinforcements to take England (1400-1510 destroyed).

I executed poorly. The AI couldn't really challenge my troops and I should have attacked Russia and Arabia simultaneously. I was late attacking the last continent and no reinforcements from Korea were required to take England. I had committed too large of a stack too far east and knights produced in Korea were too far away to help attack Russia or Celtia. My city placement and early builds weren't good enough for this to really matter but I could have finished in the 1400s by moving units more carefully.

I wasted time in one of my production cities building a monastery and missionaries to spread Confucianism to Korea. The extra promotion was overkill even if I had needed troops for England (maces and trebuchets against archers and swords) and it delayed the stack attacking Russia. In general, I built too many buildings in all my cities. It takes so long on standard speed to get large cities out of anarchy and producing units that only my core cities ever mattered. I definitely should never have built any courthouses since I didn't need any research or troop upgrades after 1000AD and they delayed troop production in Korea.

Hopped around the coast of Russia and Celtia until the Celts capitulated in 1555. Neither civ got a city off their starting continent.

 

[Manic_]

Conquest victory in 1902. Never thought it was fast, I think you could win conquest in 17xx easy.

Think the map was good for GOTM, would like to see the first few Warlords games as the new Civ's (or new leaders).

I think that numidian cav is the worst think i have ever tried to use. It was useless as korea only made archers, and was obviously obsolete when i got astro and guilds.

Odd thing on my game also, moscow built the great wall, but before it built another city, it was around the fat cross. I guess their other cities were too far away and not connected, but i thought it was a waste of a nice feature

Manic_

 

[Seraphinus]

I succeed with cultural, but it was slow. I finished in 1912 with 7846 score. I am sure there are much better result submitted.

Regards

 

[Vynd]

After the (for me at least) rather grueling experience of the last couple of GOTMs, I was happy to play a game with a low difficulty level where I could just kick back and relax, confident that I’d be able to score a victory.

I went in to the game pretty sure that I’d try for a Conquest victory. With the low difficulty level and the helpful possibility of forced capitulations, I figured it was now or never. I’m not much of a warmonger though, and my lack of a killer instinct shows in the results. I completed my conquest in 1840, with a score of 32,979. I’m sure others did much better.

My goals at the outset were to explore our continent and to develop Optics and then Astronomy as quickly as possible. Like many people I settled on the hill with access to Marble. My other early cities went near the Oasis and Iron, and along the eastern river/floodplains. Somewhat later I founded a couple of western cities to get horses and seafood, and a city near the spices to the north.

I decided not to settle the uninhabited western portion of the continent. I felt it was better to concentrate on developing my core cities and building military. It remained empty for almost the entire game. With that said, I couldn’t resist building a slew of wonders in Carthage. I justified this by the fact that I was in no hurry to conquer Korea since I figured the bigger his cities when I attacked, the better the prize. In reality, I think these decisions slowed me down.

I built the Oracle to get MC for free in 1680 BC. I just couldn’t shake the worry that I would somehow get beat to it. I really should have waited until I’d at least get Machinery, or do a Civil Service slingshot. Another early mistake was thinking that Wang Kon might trade with me.

I explored the world with Caravels in the 600s and 700s AD. Man did England have a lousy starting position! I decided to get Astronomy via Liberalism. This was accomplished in 1250 AD, and I started building Galleons. Having picked up Civil Service along the way, I took down Wang Kon using Macemen, Cats, and Trebuchets. He capitulated in 1450 AD or so.

In the meantime, I researched Gunpowder and Chemistry and I had a nice force of newly built Grenadiers and upgraded Macemen. I think at this point I should have gone after Military Tradition and Cavalry. It was only a few techs away. But I’ve never had much success with Cavalry in past games. By the time I have a good sized force it always seemed like my enemies have Riflemen, they have to wait for bombardment units anyway, etc. All of these complaints may be valid at higher difficulties but in this game I should have realized they didn’t apply. Instead I wasted my time researching Steel for Cannons (which did undeniably come in handy) and then working towards Assembly Line for a good long while before realizing my mistake and going for Cavalry.

Not that these mistakes kept me from conquering the world. It just would have been a lot faster with more Cavalry early on. As it was, I sailed my army over to Zululand and attacked in 1530 AD. Their best units were Longbowmen and War Elephants, which were absolutely no match for me. By 1625 AD I’d captured all of Shaka’s best cities and razed most of the rest, so I allowed him to capitulate. I attacked Arabia in 1640 AD and repeated the process, wrapping that war up in 1750 AD. Back at home my invasion force for continent 2 had reached respectable size, including a substantial number of Cavalry. I decided to strike at Brennus since he was the strongest remaining empire. That war began in 1705, and while he had a few Musketeers it proved just as easy as the others. Brennus capitulated in 1812.

Back on continent 1, my army regrouped and attacked England in 1785 AD. This was the one opponent I actually eliminated, in 1822. War with Stalin lasted from 1826 to 1838, and then victory was mine. When it was clear that my military was large enough to finish the job I’d built a slew of settlers, which I plunked down just before ending the game for what will probably be my only experience with milking.

So what did I learn from this game? Well mainly that I’m not really that good at Conquest, and in no small part because I find all the unit maneuvering to be kind of dull. That’s probably due in part to my not being aggressive enough. If I’d hit earlier, with smaller forces, it would have been riskier, but more enjoyable and rewarding if it worked.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Cultural Victory, 1918.

Have to admit my impression of this game is, what went wrong? I got a cultural victory, but miles later than I feel I should have achieved given the noble difficulty level, and with a very low score (base, around 2500, final around 11000).

Why it was so late I'm not sure. I suspect the map played a role, as it did make it hard to find good city sites (Most of my cities had desert somewhere in the city radius). Did I not focus on science enough in the early game, delaying the point where I could switch off science? Did I not build enough cottages in my culture cities? (I was restricted there since two of them were coastal, and Seoul in particular was slightly food-challenged so I had to devote a couple of squares to farmland). Did I get the balance wrong in those cities between cottages to give me the culture/turn from the culture slider, and hammers so I could actually build the culture-generating buildings. The thing I really notice is that at the end of the game my highest culture city was only givieng me 773 culture/turn, in contrast to the 1000+/turn that you read about people achieving on the forums. That was despite eventually having 5 religions, thanks to spreading from other civs, and building cathedrals for all of them. I'm sure that poor culture/turn had a big impact on the lateness of the victory.

The aim from the start was to be militaristic and conquer the starting continent, then I could turn my culture slider up, neglect science etc., while being relatively safe from attack by other civs, since they'd all be off-continent. Maybe I'd even be able to use that safety to do some pop milking too while my culture was going. (Was that approach a mistake, expecially on this very elongated continent? Distance costs restricting how high I could up the culture slider)

In fact I didn't totally eliminate Wang Kon. I reduced him to two cities on the ice/tundra in the extreme SE of the continent, where with a total population of 3, and no food to allow his pop to climb above that, it was obvious he'd be no further threat at all to me, so I left him there.

My chosen cultural cities were my capital Carthage, founded on the starting spot, Wang Kon's old capital Seoul, and Hippo, which I founded on the tile SW of the wheat, 8 squares East and 1 North of my capital. All chosen because of their access to flood plains that I could cottage, and in the case of Carthage because I could use Civil Service to build lots of wonders there quickly.

Initially I built the Oracle (for CS slingshot and to give me a prophet for the confucian shrine), along with only those wonders that gave great-artist points. Later on, I built high-culture but non-GA-point wonders, judging by now there was very little risk of extra non-artist great person pollution.

Culture City summary in 1918:

Carthage (579 culture/turn): Oracle, Parthenon, Sistine Chapel, Notre Dame, Taj Mahal.
Hippo(773 culture/turn): No wonders but 3 great artist superspecialists.
Seoul (743 culture/turn): Versailles (helpful for my economy too, since my ex-Korean cities were so far from the capital), plus 2 great artist superspecialists.







I did get five unwanted prophets, which I guess was a big downer. That was partly thanks to the Oracle, but mostly thanks to the game continuously putting priest specialists in cities without asking me (does anyone know any way to stop the game from doing that? It's incredibly annoying). But even so, by the end of the game I had 5 great artists working as superspecialists and had created several great works too, so I wasn't exactly short of artists.

I pretty much killed research at nationalism/printing press/astronomy (the latter so I could trade for health resources since the starting continent was poor on those and I was aware that was limiting my city growth.), though got some other later techs thanks to trades.

 

[Vynd]

Culture City summary in 1918:

Carthage (579 culture/turn): Oracle, Parthenon, Sistine Chapel, Notre Dame, Taj Mahal.
Hippo(773 culture/turn): No wonders but 3 great artist superspecialists.
Seoul (743 culture/turn): Versailles (helpful for my economy too, since my ex-Korean cities were so far from the capital), plus 2 great artist superspecialists.

Your screenshots look strange. The culture bars and the info in the top left corner match what you've listed here. But the mouseover boxes in the Seoul and Hippo images have completely different numbers.

 

[synthboy]

A grotty Space Race victory in 2013 with a miserable 3848 points

I started off well but didn't go beyond the first expansion stage. I never moved west into the unclaimed continent and didn't have scrap with Korea. I just wasn't sure what to do and instead of having a go at something I just bottled up. No wars, no real friends either. Still a victory is a victory.

 

[Redbad]

@DynamicSpirit

If you want I can give some idea's on what to do different for a cultural victory:

your cultural cities are building other stuff then "culture""
your culture cities work plainhill mines, should change them into artists
your cultural cities are still growing while for example working irrigated plains, should be cottaged plains
80% cultural is rather low, you are making some 66 gpt
far to many artist specialists, most should have built great works
of course far to many other great persons

towards the end: 3 cities make culture, 1 cities makes military and 5 cities make money
culture cities work cottages or high commerce resources (gold, silver,..), because the commerce is transformed into culture
other cities work mines because when slider is 90-100 % culture only hammers can be transformed into military and money

Quite a lot of cathedral type buildings you don't actually want to build , you cash rush them. After research is over we switch from research to money. After the cathedral type buildings are rushed, we switch from money to culture.
There are a few important wonders, but building many wonders is not desireble: they are expensive and provoke wrong GPs. Cathedral type buildings are much better.

 

[Thrallia]

Alright, I finally finished...after numerous mistakes(some fairly huge), some crashes, and an attack of real life almost preventing me from finishing, I am able to post how I achieved my 2050AD Time Victory with a base score of 7,020 points(hopefully enough for the cow award)

oh...I was originally going for a Space Race Victory, but I managed to make a few major mistakes that delayed me to the point of deciding that I would just go for the cow award rather than a mediocre mid 1900s space race win.

Starting post-500AD, here are my notes:

580AD: Kong Maio built in Hippo
820AD: Great Lighthouse built in Carthage(actually, it was probably Hadrumetum or Utica, considering Carthage was not coastal)
1060AD: Islam founded in Utica
1090AD: Colossus built in Utica(I built this and the GL very late, they weren't that important to me and were kinda put on the backburner because of that)
1070AD: Thapsus founded W of Leptis
1120AD: Taoism founded in Kerkouane(the 3rd religion I've founded)
1250AD: Thaenae founded W of Thapsus
1350AD: Polynesian conquered
1400AD: Tacape founded N of Polynesian and W of Thaenae
1480AD: My caravel hits the edge of the map and I realize...I've made a mental mistake, forgetting we were on a flat world! This is my first big ocean-related mistake...Note that I've already researched Liberalism at this point)
1510AD: Masjid al-Haram built in Utica
1525AD: Sabratha founded on W island next to Stone and Iron
1530AD: Oea founded E of Sabratha
1635AD: Spiral Minaret built in Kerkouane(unfortunately, too late for me to use it for anything, I switched to Free Religion once I got Liberalism and forgot I had this building)

I also realize I've totally screwed up any chance I had of a fastest finish Space Race, I forgot that Astronomy was required for Scientific Method, I also got the benefits of Colossus versus Lighthouse confused, and was ignoring Astronomy so that my Colossus(and I didn't really care about the Colossus, what I really didn't want obsolete were my extra trade routes from the Lighthouse) wouldn't become obsolete.

These are my second and third major mistakes that eventually led to my decision to forgo a Space Race Victory. I could have researched Astronomy around 1100AD, but didn't since I'd just built the Colossus and thought it gave me the +1 trade routes. I also completely forgot that Scientific Method was after Astronomy, so I researched almost everything else I could before realizing it.

1710AD: Taj Mahal built in Carthage, Golden Age starts(attempting to gain back some of the time I lost techwise)
1804AD: Malaca founded in S of Western Island to grab Oil
1824AD: Ulsan revolts from Korea to join Carthage

I've managed to gain a huge portion of tech in the intervening 200 years since my huge mistake, around 1860AD I finally research Rocketry and begin the Apollo Program.

1878AD: Stalin declares war on me and lands 2 cossacks and 2 musketeers next to Utica-unfortunately I had been too cocky and had a single WARRIOR defending Utica, and not enough cash to rush a unit or upgrade it

Ouch...this could turn very bad, Utica is my #3 hammer/#3 commerce city

1880AD: Stalin captures and KEEPS Utica(thank god, now I can retake it)
1882AD: Utica recaptured from Stalin's worthless(at this point) Cossacks

I go on the offensive because of my limited production cities and to teach Stalin a lesson

1900AD: Yakutsk captured at SE corner of Russian continent
1916AD: Novgorod captured W of Yakutsk, near Celtic territory
1920AD: Kremlin built in Carthage
1925AD: 1 turn left till Rostov was going to be razed, Stalin offers to become my vassal and I accept. I then take all his cash, resources, AND get 45 gpt from him in exchange for an extra aluminum and cow

My first WOTM vassal, Stalin eventually proves to be worth more than all my future vassals combined...as will be shown over the next 100 years

1926AD: Apollo Program completed in Thaenae
1927AD: Get another 17 gpt from Stalin for Horses
1929AD: Scotland yard built in Thapsus

At this point I decide to definitely go for the cow award, perhaps win my first award ever in a GOTM I just hope I have time to play that far

To assist with my cow award, I decide I need more cities and population. To that end, I decide to focus on Shaka and Saladin. They both have large populations and should give me a great deal of points after conquest

1937AD: Golden Age begun with a Merchant and Artist
1940AD: Stalin suddenly has over 100 gpt available, so I give him 3 resources for all of it
1941AD: Pentagon built in Tacape
1944AD: Stalin has 50 gpt again, I take it with more resource trades
1945AD: Three Gorges Dam built in Carthage

Sometime during the 1940s, I declare war on Shaka, unfortunately I managed to lose my notes on my war...

1953AD: Eiffel Tower built in Kerkuoane
1960AD: Rock N' Roll built in Carthage
1969AD: Shaka capitulates and becomes my second vassal

Since I don't have any notes, all I can say is I captured Ulundi, and every other city Shaka built in his main section of his continent, along with one he founded in the middle or Arab territory at the South coast(I plan to use it for launching my future invasion of Arabia) He eventually capitulates when he's down to 4 good cities.

Sometime during the war, Shaka bribed Churchill to declare war on me and I bribed Korea to war both Churchill and Shaka. I didn't expect anything to come of it, but I was hoping that the tech I gave Korea would help them improve their terribly backward country to the point of being worth assimilation.

1970AD: I nuke London to make a point to Churchill
1971AD: Churchill capitulates and becomes my third vassal

That truly is the extent of my war with Churchill. By the end of my war with Shaka I had Modern Tanks rolling across Arabian territory toward Churchill, I nuked London once and the next turn he surrenders

1981AD: Hollywood built in Carthage
1983AD: I am making over 350 gpt from Stalin, 140 gpt from Churchill, and 100 gpt from Shaka. This is enough that I am able to run my worldwide empire(half of it courthouse-less) at 100% science and EARN gpt as well
1987AD: United Nations built in Kerkouane
1991AD: Space Elevator built in Utica
1994-1997AD: Science is completely turned off to upgrade everything, during this time I net over 2.8k gpt
1998AD: War declared on Arabia
1999AD: a small Arabian city is razed
2001AD: Baghdad captured from Arabia
2002AD: Mecca nuked twice
2006AD: Anjar captured from Arabia
2007AD: AAAAAAAAAAUGH! After having Warlords crash 4 times going from 2006 to 2007, during none of which did Arabia go on the offensive, I finally get through 2006-2007 without a crash, and ARABIA ATTACKS!! Wins and captures Baghdad, destroying the 4 Stealth Bombers and Stealth Fighter I had there.

2007AD: Medina captured
2008AD: Kufah and Damascus each nuked once
2009AD: Baghdad recaptured
2011AD: Kufah captured
2011AD: Canterbury captured
2013AD: Najran captured
2014AD: Nottingham captured, Damascus captured, Coventry taken during peace talks
2014AD: Arabia capitulates and becomes my 4th and last vassal
2016AD: Internet built in Thaenae
2030AD: I demand wine from Stalin, he refuses and goes to war with me...I lose 535 gpt in trade immediately and have to reduce my research rate from 100% to 80% for the first time in almost 100 years
2039AD: Stalin's entire mainland empire has been conquered, but he won't end the war because he doesn't want to be my vassal again
2040AD: Carthage hits Legendary Culture
2046AD: Stalin capitulates again
2050AD: Hannibal wins a Time Victory, 7051 Final Score

GPs: Prophet x4, Artist x7(1 from Music), Merchant x2(1 from Economics), Scientist x3(1 from Physics), Engineer x2(1 from Fusion), General x4(1 from Fascism)

Lightbulbed techs: CS, Theology, Divine Right, Nationalism, Democracy, Computers

Carthage was my GP farm, and it tended to pop artists more often than not, all my Prophets came from utica, and my first Great General was the one I got for free from Fascism. He joined Kerkuoane for 25% military production, which along with my Heroic Epic, gave the city in the 1950s+ a yield of 1 modern tank every 2 turns.

I was able to slightly further refine my modern war tactics, I did much better against Arabia than I did in my last modern war, although I had no idea he had Gunships, or I would have held off on declaring war until I had at least one SAM Inf. in each tank stack.

I ended the game researching Future Tech 16, and each tech took 3 turns to research with a huge overflow. I ran the entire late game at 100% science and still made a huge amount of gpt surplus. My high point was when I was making over 400 gpt at 100% science.

Hopefully I can win the cow award, cause I really don't want to play this long of a game again, I generally finish a game in 7-8 hours of game time, and this game took nearly 15 hours to complete.

Finally, if requested, I can post screenshots of my empire, I believe I had about 60% of the land and was nearly at the domination point at the end, so I decided not to do screenshots unless requested.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

I'm going to have a biatch session here;

For some reason NOONE WOULD TRADE WITH ME!

I took over Wang Kon early and then when others started sending ships over I went to trade with them - but they wouldn't.

So I changed to their religions, but they still wouldn't trade with me.

I was up to +6 with a CIV but they told me that they didn't want to trade with me.

In the end Churchill Vassaled to Saladin (I wiped out the Zulus on his continent) and then traded 2 techs with me.

For 5,000 years there was only 2 techs traded?!?!?! As I explained in my first spoiler Wang Kon was getting a hiding from my Army but would never give me a tech for peace!

For this reason I was always behind in some techs while leading in others; but had to go back and get some techs
In the end I won a time victory but it was close as Stalin and Saladin were both building spaceships.

James

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Your screenshots look strange. The culture bars and the info in the top left corner match what you've listed here. But the mouseover boxes in the Seoul and Hippo images have completely different numbers.

Good point. I reloaded and checked again and it looks like there's a bug in the game's UI. If you leave the mouse over the culture bar in the city screen, so that mouseover box remains up, then use the cursor left/right keys to move between cities, the mouseover box doesn't update, it just shows the details from the original (wrong) city. Hence the wrong numbers.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

@DynamicSpirit
If you want I can give some idea's on what to do different for a cultural victory:

your cultural cities are building other stuff then "culture""
your culture cities work plainhill mines, should change them into artists
your cultural cities are still growing while for example working irrigated plains, should be cottaged plains
80% cultural is rather low, you are making some 66 gpt
far to many artist specialists, most should have built great works
of course far to many other great persons

towards the end: 3 cities make culture, 1 cities makes military and 5 cities make money
culture cities work cottages or high commerce resources (gold, silver,..), because the commerce is transformed into culture
other cities work mines because when slider is 90-100 % culture only hammers can be transformed into military and money

Quite a lot of cathedral type buildings you don't actually want to build , you cash rush them. After research is over we switch from research to money. After the cathedral type buildings are rushed, we switch from money to culture.
There are a few important wonders, but building many wonders is not desireble: they are expensive and provoke wrong GPs. Cathedral type buildings are much better.

Thanks Redbad, definitely some useful tips there. I like the one about having your other cities produce gold, which pays to keep your culture slider higher - I hadn't thought of that!

I think to some extent my screenshots may have been a teensy bit misleading coz they were from the turn after my victory, and at that point, 2 of the cities had already topped 50K culture and I was no longer concerned about how much more culture they produced, I was more worried about military build-up just in case someone decided to attack me at the last minute.

On the culture slider, I'd been oscillating between 80% and 90% for ages, as my gold-break-even point is somewhere between those. IIRC I left it on 80% the last couple of turns because I'd checked that taking it to 90% or even 100% wouldn't at that point change which turn the victory came on.

 

[bldoron]

sorry for what might be a noob question Thrallia, but how do you get that trade screen? I've been dying for something like that ever since day one. I'm not so strong with mods and such, so don't be angry.

 

[Vynd]

sorry for what might be a noob question Thrallia, but how do you get that trade screen? I've been dying for something like that ever since day one. I'm not so strong with mods and such, so don't be angry.

You need to install the Hall of Fame mod and turn on the Exotic Foreign Advisor.

 

[Vynd]

I'm going to have a biatch session here;

For some reason NOONE WOULD TRADE WITH ME!

I also had a hard time getting anyone to trade. There are probably several reasons behind this. One is that some leaders just don't like to trade techs. I'm pretty sure that Stalin is one of them, and I think Wang Kon might be as well.

I have read elsewhere on this site that civs will not make technology trades at all unless they know at least two civilizations. So that could be part of the problem with Wang Kon early on.

Civs will refuse to trade with you if they think you are too advanced. I'm not sure how this calculation is made. But it's definitely something you'll run into if you are way ahead technologically in most respects, but would like to trade for one or two older techs you've been neglecting.

Civs not being willing to give technologies for peace is a common complaint. The best explanation I've heard for this is that AI civs determine the value of the tech, and thus their willingess to give it away, by looking at how long it would take them to research it. If you've just captured all of their best cities then even the cheapest techs would take forever to research and thus seem to valuable to give up.

 

[Thrallia]

sorry for what might be a noob question Thrallia, but how do you get that trade screen? I've been dying for something like that ever since day one. I'm not so strong with mods and such, so don't be angry.

as Vynd said, it is part of the HOF mod, so if you keep playing WOTM and GOTM, you'll be able to partake of the wondrous improved advisors starting in this next game, as installing the mod will be required now. However, all of the components start out disabled, so hopefully someone can post a useful guide for people who aren't good with mods to help them turn on the parts they want turned on.

 

[orb]

Well as I mentioned inthe first spoiler I was going for a cultural win from the start, and that's what I got, although not particularly fast. (1997 - final score 3215 on contender)

An odd game I have to say.

First of all I didn't have any combat except Barbs.
I didn't meet Churchill until 1930 (ish)
I didn't meet Brenus until 1945 (ish)
Although I had the world map whicih showed their territories.

Contrary to CliftonBazaar and Vynd, I traded techs with Wang for most of the game. - In fact Wang was my best bud giving me a few techs for free when I asked.
Later in the game I found the other Ai's closing the door to tech trade.

Summary of the game - Saladin tried to capture the large continent, Churchill became his vassal and they both tried to kick Shaka, Wang tried to build a spaceship. All the while I built culture.

What went well for me - First of all - All 3 cities acheiving legendary within 12 turns (which is better than I've managed before). - Secondly use of Great Engineers and lightbulbs helped a lot. I'm gonna try that again.

What didn't go well - Lack of religions prevented more culture build. - I think the map didn't help, but strangely other than Wang, no civ spread their religion to me. The only one I managed to grab was Islam.

So a culture win but later than I wanted. - Low score. - (Note to me - try for conquest next time.)

 

[Harok]

Cultural victory in 1806.

I haven't tried a cultural game since GOTM 2 and I was rusty leading to finishing much later than I expected. Things I did poorly were not setting up a 2nd GP farm quick enough. Embarrassingly not irrigating to the wheat I was using in my main GP farm costing me 1 bread the majority of the game (I didn't even realize this until I was taking screenshots for this writeup). Forgetting to switch civics for a couple of turns after getting Philosophy and after I completed the Pyramids. Its a shame I made so many small mistakes as I felt like I had a really good gameplan for a fast culture win.

I founded my capital on the plains hill to get marble and the cow with enough FPs to cottage early. I expanded rapidly to the east getting up to 5 cities by 900 BC. I declared war on Wang in 1800BC to steal a worker and made peace soon after. I popped 2 huts in the western region and got some money from both. My main early strategy was to get what decent land there was on this map settled and start founding religions while getting some GPs produced. I didn't want to worry about barbs and also wanted an early GE to use on a wonder so I built the Great Wall. This allowed me to pretty much ignore early defense and I built a total of 4 warriors and no other units until Muskets and never lost a single unit in the entire game.

The next part of my plan was to get strong GA production off the ground early. This was a 5 step plan involving 5 wonders. The first was the Great Wall for a GE to use on the Pyramids to open Rep so all my specialists would speed my research and give me happy faces. This process was sped up by also building the Parthenon to get the GE quicker. Next I geared my research to get CoL early for Caste System. And I then used the Oracle to get Philosophy soon after. The last part was to get the National Epic built in my main GP farm so I had it build an early (slow to complete) library and then Literature for the fairly quickly.

I switched to Caste/Pacifism in 475BC and Rep in 25BC. I focused many of the wonders that I didn't want Great People from in one city which I was very careful not to give my state religion to until the end, preventing it from ever producing a Great Person.

My tech pace was strong as I went for early cottages and I founded Judaism, Conf., Taoism, and Islam. I missed Christianity by just a couple of turns but Wang's Buddhism spread to me giving me 5 religions.

My early research path was:
Wheel > Pottery > Masonry > Myst > Ag > Poly > Mono > Writing > Priest > CoL > Med > Philo.

Wonders I built:
City 1 - Parthenon > Sistine > Notre Dame > Taj Mahal
City 2 - Oracle > Pyramids > Colossus > Stonehenge
City 3 - Great Wall > Great Library

Please check the date of Stonehenge as I have NEVER seen it built anywhere near this late before. I didn't realize no one had built it until it popped up as a recommended thing to build for one of my cities and decided to go ahead and build it for the culture points. I need to check for a save around this time and go back and see just how long it takes the AI to build it.

Great People:
I got 2 Great Engineers - Used 1 for Pyramids and 1 for Taj Mahal.

I got 2 Great Scientists - I used 1 for an academy and the other for a very late golden age. This was another mistake as it should have been a GArtist instead but I made a 2nd grade math error and hired one citizen too many in the city with the Great Library. This cost me a couple of turns at the end but nothing major.

I got 13 Great Artists - (Not sure if that includes the one from Music or not) I joined the first 5 to cities used 1 for the late GA as it wouldn't slow me after I messed up the one great person and used the others for Great Works.

I shut off research in the mid 1100s and built up cash while in rep then switched to Universal Suffrage and started buying all the religious buildings I could. I got 5 cathedrals in each of my culture cities. This part took much longer than I thought it would even though I was making a healthy amount of cash (200-350) each turn. I'm not sure if I had poor execution or if I spread too many religions, or just needed some hammer cities so I didn't have to buy so much stuff. After this I went 100% culture and sold techs to AIs whenever they had 50 or more gold. I never met some of the civs as I never built a boat other than workboats, I stopped research before Astronomy as it would have slowed me with research time instead of culture time and it would kill the Colossus.

My world map at the end of the game should win an award for being the most pathetic.


Overall I think I had a solid gameplan and carried some parts of it out very well but just had too many little mistakes and uncertainty in the middle game for a really good time.

Spoiler contains pics of city layouts/culture/religions:

Spoiler :

City placement of my 3 culture cities and main GP farm.


Culture City 1


Culture City 2


Culture City 3


Main GP farm


Religions

 

[ElWanderer]

Thrallia said:
I achieved my 2050AD Time Victory with a base score of 7,020 points(hopefully enough for the cow award)

I got a time victory, though I finished my last spaceship part on the last turn (2049AD according to the log). I scored 9282 points, but I don't know if that'll be enough for the cow. I've seen people score 12000+ points in other games. Though I milked pretty hard, I didn't resort to founding lots of junk cities to boost my population figures. I did found a couple near un-used food resources though.


Some important dates:
1120 hit liberalism, took astronomy as my free tech (had met everyone bar Churchill via my caravels so my trade income shot up at this point)

1290 Wang Kon demanded drama or something pathetic like that. I refused and he declared on me

1655 Korea incorporated into greater Carthage.

At some point, I decided I wasn't going to get a good score or win any awards (I'd read the first spoiler and decided my early play was not good enough for a quick finish), so I thought I'd try some things I hadn't before. I wanted to build and use modern armour for the first time, Oh, and stealth bombers too! Quite sadistic really... the AI wasn't going to stand a chance.

I also spotted a barbarian city in the middle of the Western island. It was barely defended (just a couple of warriors) but it hadn't been attacked as the AIs were too busy developing their colonies there. I swept in with a transport and took it. This city concentrated on culture and by the end had flipped 4 of the AI cities on the island.

1939 I declare war on England. My Northern fleet sweeps in, taking London and York in the first turn
1947 Having taken all Churchill's coastal cities, I move on to Saladin.
1951 England destroyed
1954 Arabia destroyed

I figured this would give me about 60% of the world. Now I could invade Shaka for a late domination victory or milk.

I decided to milk, which meant it took ages to finish. At first it was tough to replace all my long-built towns with farms, but as I found it didn't affect my gold income too much, I went for it... by the end I had no cottaged tiles left.

Brennus almost launched his spaceship before 2050, but my spies delayed his production by about 6 years:

Shaka started on his last component too late to finish in time.
Stalin (now Brennus's vassal) didn't look like finishing until 2100!