WOTM 06 - Final Spoiler

[Jenarie]

I played the worst game I've played since I got done with the tutorial. Ended up quitting in disgust after one too many stupid mistakes which is disapointing because I really planned to keep submitting all WOTMs. I'll play through again to learn from it but no submit from me on this one.

 

[cabert]

I played the worst game I've played since I got done with the tutorial. Ended up quitting in disgust after one too many stupid mistakes which is disapointing because I really planned to keep submitting all WOTMs. I'll play through again to learn from it but no submit from me on this one.

I share your grief.
Too many moves, and quitting in disgust for me too.
I'll do better the next time hopefully.

 

[Doc TK]

Conquest in 1532. 112k score

That's likely a great result. I had a really hard time in this game because of the lack of production resources. Probably made a mistake taking down Cath first rather than going down to attack higher production (and lots of wonders) Romans. Oh well.

I think mine was 1780s, 91K.

 

[AgedOne]

Probably made a mistake taking down Cath first rather than going down to attack higher production (and lots of wonders) Romans. Oh well.

That's a very interesting comment. How do you choose your next victim?
(Assuming you're choosing violence. I took out Catty Cathy and then changed my mind and went for diplomacy.)

Do you hit the one who's the biggest threat, or do you take out the nearest? Do you go for one who has plenty of wonders? Maybe a little more subtly, do you weigh up the units that each AI is going to face you with - either what they have now, or what they might have if you leave them until later!

What did I get from wiping out Russia? A little extra living space, and Stonehenge (Whoo Hoo!)

 

[Priah]

conquest victory, 1800, 56k

Start:
Saw the limited area for a second city, like most, figured the place on the lake + coast near the gems would make a good site for second city. I went for sailing after bronze working/animal husbandry. Built only one worker, got my settler pretty quickly with two mines + pig and fish. Got sailing the turn i settled second site, build a warrior in my city in that same turn, and slaveried my trading post fast. I had also prechopped a bit, so I got great lighthouse real quick, got it around 1700 or 1600 bc. Built a ship after that with slavery again, made contact with russia and founded writing the exact turn. was nicely timed. Got 3 trade routes in both my city each 2. At same time I got iron working next, got the gems. Saw the iron site, built a city on the other side of the lake so i got both iron and the clam. Built a fourth city to get both horses and share the pig with the other city.

Invading Russia 200 BC - 500 ad
Started building up a pretty decent force of roughly 9 axemen, 3 swordsmen, 3 catapults and 3 galleys to invade russia (wanted the sugar and dye which looked to be everywhere). Invasion took up until around 500 or 600 ad. Was fairly well executed and I was left with 5 or so level 4 or above units. Once the war was over, my economy was just booming. Only problem was, russians had somehow managed to escape across the ocean and had some city where i couldnt find it.

Building up economy 600 ad - 1200 ad
Built up a booming economy with some crazy trade, got harbors in almost every city with 4 trade routes of 4 - 6. Built two industrial cities, used my duel iron city was my gp. Was probably somewhat of a mistake, as I really only ever got up to 20 gp as I wanted to use the pigs for my other industrial city. Rushed up to chemistry to get grenadiers and get my workshops as good as mines. With the city with pigs + 2 horses I built a workshops everywhere, did the same with the city with fish + clams on the coast. Had some made production, and just pumped out beserkers with five xp with vassalage and upgraded them to grenadiers. Got astronomy and upgraded to galleons and frigates.

Invading India + Rome 1200 ad - 1500 ad
With roughly ten frigates and 20 double city raider grenadiers with amphibious, I just rolled through Indias longbows, took three of his coastal cities and he was ready to surrender within like eight turns. Took this as a good sign, decided to move on to Rome. Took Rome literally 4 turns after India surrendered. Took out the coastal cities rapidly, unfortunately he simply wouldnt surrender and forced me to go all the way inland to take all of his cities, even when he had one four pop city, he wouldnt surrender. Was annoying as hell.

Rebuilding economy somewhat 1500 ad - 1650 ad.
switched to mercantilism/representation because everyone else was doin it. Was up to around 700 research at this point, with three very decent military industrial sites. Was pumping out my marine grenadier city raiders pretty quickly. I got a bunch of great merchants which was pretty lucky.

Attacked spain 1650 - 1750 ad. and America
Dont really know why I hit spain, he was second in height, I guess I wanted to kill him before he got riflemen, that didnt work out. He surrendered pretty quickly. I hesitated a few turns to regroup a few turns and hit america. America had a ton of cities, but he really only had longbowmen. At this point I had upgraded my some 20 level 5 city raider grenadiers to infantry. These monsters rolled through the longbowmen. Still, was a large area to conquer so it took some 15 turns.

Finishing off incans.
Attacked incans 4 turns after america surrendered. They actually put up somewhat of a fight with a sizeable force of riflemen, but still didnt stand a chance against my force of elite infantry marines. level 3 city raiders, level 1 combat, and level 1 anti gunpowder. Rolled through them with a few artillery added to the mix. At the end of the war they got a few machine guns... so much for them being a stalemate, artillery simply rolled through them. They fell in exactly 1800 ad and I got my victory.

Overall
I was happy with my play, think I balanced everything out well. I probably should have gone straight out production once I got communism and had my grenadier marines, instead of building up more of an economy. Towards the end of the game for example my economy was 1.3 k research a turn. Probably shouldnt of bothered getting ironworks and mount rushmore and other little wonders and gone for a quicker victory. Everything went well this game, doubt I could pull it off again much less do any better.

 

[Priah]

Vikings were just made for this sort of map. Was awesome, unstoppable marine grenadiers rolling around with city raider... so much fun.

 

[Thrallia]

Diplo Victory in 1840AD ~27k points

I left off my spoiler in 500AD with the Incans having just declared war on me.

I destroyed their invasion forces, then sent a couple galleys with cats and Berserkers in them over to his continent, protected by a trireme. I found to my unhappiness that I cannot bombard from a boat , so I landed my troops, bombarded down the defenses, and took Cori...something in around 1000AD. Since we had very little production, I heavily poprushed my troops as fast as I could. I built 5 galleys and ferried over troops whenever I needed to. Huayna was not a very amphibious war simply because I was unused to both warring and not needing to worry about amphibious assaults.

Vilcas was razed amphibiously, Macchu Picchu was conquered, Huamanga taken and lost again, Ollantaytambo taken, lost, then razed, Tiwanaku taken, and Huayna refused to surrender...so I took Cuzco. It was a risk because I used the last of my troops, and if I lost, or he counter attacked, I would lose effectively my entire army on his continent. Luckily, I won, took Cuzco, and he was immediately willing to Surrender and become my vassal.

Thus, I moved all my transports back home, used the two Great Generals I had produced to build a Military academy and an Instructor in Birka, my horse city.

At this point I was getting greatly outpaced in tech by pretty much everyone, and somehow was pleased or friendly with everyone. Despite being Buddhist with Izzy, religion didn't seem to affect the relations I had with everyone. I decided then to head for a diplo victory, hoping I could get Caesar to be my opponent, since no one liked him except Asoka.

Unfortunately, as happens with plans...they got mucked up by a couple things. First, Caesar began running away with the wonders and tech race. He and Asoka were the first two to Liberalism, and for some reason I began getting the WFYABTA block from everyone...I've never even had that before, yet everyone, even Izzy who was +18 with me, was giving that to me. So...I began scouting out various lands for a good target for my now semi-numerous and very upgraded Berserkers. I had Theocracy, Vassalage, a Barracks, and an Instructor in my main military city, allowing me to produce 9exp Berserkers once every 11 turns, 6 once I built the Heroic Epic there. Caesar's name came up short...he had good production it seemed, since he had built 8 or 9 of the wonders, he was universally disliked, and was close enough for me to conquer him. He also seemed inclined to build Praetorians rather than Maces.

Thus, I sent my galleys through his waters into India, then declared war on him in around 1400AD. On the first turn of war, I conquered Rome, on the second, Arretium was taken. I then moved back toward India and razed his two Eastern cities. Just before that happened though, he discovered chemistry and started building grenadiers...bad news for my Berserkers! I decided to give him no time to build up his gunpowder troops. My trebs and Zerks moved quickly along the coast aboard my ships, landed, bombarded, then conquered city after city. Ravenna was razed, Cumae conquered, Neapolis conquered, then I took an ice city...the Christian Holy City. I took it because without taking it, Rome would never work its entire fat cross...but I really didn't want it. It gave me 9gpt thanks to the shrine, but I planned to gift it to Asoka.

As soon as I took the christian holy city, Rome was willing to surrender. In all, I took 8 wonders from Caesar. It is interesting to note...at this point I still had not gotten a single Great Person...Rome gave me one 5 turns after it came out of revolt. A GE that I used to build Versailles in Macchu Picchu.

At this point I had 2 vassals, Izzy at +17 and Cathy at +10. Roosevelt was my likely opponent and was +7 with me, while Cathy was +8 with him. I decided for some reason I'm not sure of that perhaps I would attempt a conquest win...I only halfheartedly thought this, but while thinking it I realized Asoka had 2 LB and a pike in all 4 of his coastal cities, including Delhi.

Thus, I declared war on him with my highly upgraded Zerks and Trebs(I only had 8 Zerks and 6 Trebs, but nearly every single unit had CR3, and 3 of my Zerks were CR3, Combat2) I therefore, positioned 2 Galleons(I upgraded at some point) outside of Asoka's 3 noncapital coastal cities just before declaring. Upon declaring, I brought in my troops and landed them at 2 of the cities, conquering the other from the sea. India counter attacked, but didn't really do much good. I bombarded the other two cities and conquered them the next turn. Following this, I loaded up my ships and moved over to Delhi, where I bombarded the city...and found something disturbing...There was a Machine Gun sitting in the city. I worried about it for a moment, and decided to try my Trebs on it...perhaps they would hurt it a little bit. WHOOHOO!! I lose one treb, but my second one somehow WINS! I easily destroy the LBs and conquer Delhi, giving me another 4 Wonders...3 of which are already obsolete lol

However, cultural pressure and the lack of a willingness to surrender by Asoka, meant I had to go inland. I razed the Taoist holy city and just before I razed Lahore, an ice city, Cathy declared war on me! . Lahore was defended by a Machine Gun, 3 Rifles, and an LB...that caused me to lose 1/3 of my troops, following that, Asoka surrendered and I was able to pack up and send my troops back home.

I got my troops home to find that my easternmos gem city had been overrun by Cossacks, Rifles, and Trebs. I quickly began rushing troops in Birka, Uppsala, and Haithabu while transferring the Lbs defending each of them to my gem city. Unfortunately, it didn't help and Cathy razed it. I was able to rush a few muskets, give them gunpowder promotions, and destroy the remaining Russian troops, but I'd lost a size 14 city so I retaliated by sending my Indian vets to Russia. I went 0% science, upgraded 5 of my Zerks to Grenadiers, and razed Novgorod, a size 13 city. Cathy was immediately willing to give me 500 gold, 7 gpt, and her WM for peace.

I then found out I can tell my vassals what to research I had Huayna research Chemistry for me. By this point I had gone from 0 Great People in 1450AD, to gaining a GP for the Jewish Shrine, 2 GS, and 2 GE. I used one GE on Versailles, and was saving the other for the UN. I used 1 GS eventually on Biology and the other eventually on Computers.

From that point on, I teched up to Mass Media, built the UN in 3 turns thanks to a GE and 2k gold from Izzy and Roosevelt, and easily won the SecGen election. I only needed 476 votes to win the diplo victory, so I discovered Bio, gifted it to Izzy, Asoka, Caesar, and Huayna, since I was guaranteed all their votes, and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, I came up at 420 votes...40 short.

There was absolutely nothing else to be done...I had been continuing to build Zerks, promote them twice, and then upgrade them to Grens, so I loaded everything up and declared war on Cathy again, then bribed Roosevelt into warring with his only supporter for Mass Media Then...bad news. Cathy wasn't using Rifles anymore...she had upgraded to Infantry and I couldn't built them yet. Asoka and Caesar knew how, but refused to share

Thus, my amphibious grens and my trebs started to move toward Rostov...but then I saw the horrible horribleness that was a stack of 6 destroyers and 3 transports in Moscow. Unfortunately, it was defended by 2 Infantry and 5 Rifles as well. I used my frigs and Ironclad to bombard the city, then suicided every single treb I had. It didn't do squat to one of my Infantry, but hurt the rest of the stack. I then suicided half my grens before I had managed to kill off her Infantry. Luckily, Rifles are easy prey for Grens, so I managed to take Moscow. I then had a choice...do I keep it, as such a nice city as it was, or do I raze it? It was really no choice...I had no way of defending it and didn't have anywhere near the technology to conduct a fair land war. I razed Moscow, size 21, and was instantly much closer to a diplo victory. Cathy immediately resettled there, but obviously the damage was done to her. I finally managed to get Infantry from Caesar for Radio and Computers, and was no longer able to build Zerks Luckily, I had cannons now. To make a long story short...I conquered a size 12 1 tile island city using my amphibious grens, then upgraded them all to Infantry, went 0% science, buying 3 cannons every turn, and then razed Yekaterinburg, size 9, and Rostov, size 8. I originally kept Rostov at size 14, hoping ti would enable me to end the game, but Cathy came up with a tank and took out my 2 defending Infantry. So I then went back and razed Rostov. This happened the same turn as my last election. I won the game in 1840 with ~450 votes, with 443 needed. This is my earliest diplo victory in a solo game It wasn't nearly as fast as it could have been if not for a few mistakes, but overall I am proud of it.

Biggest mistakes: Trading for Chemistry when I did...I had planned on using my 2 GS for Electricity, but lost the ability to when I got Chemistry...it made them prefer Bio. If I'd lightbulbed Electricity, it would have saved me over 25 turns.

Warring Asoka...it wasn't really necessary at the time, and actually led to Cathy attacking me, as he was her friend and I believe he bribed her into it with Rifling. If not for that, I could have had Cathy's support once she switched to Free Religion.

Not building any monasteries the entire game. If I'd built even 1 monastery I could have converted Cathy to Buddhism easily, giving me her votes instantly.

Peacing Cathy when I had a sudden army of 10 Amphibious Grens. I could ahve easily taken/razed at least 3 other cities, reducing the number of votes required enough for me to win on the first election.

 

[Pious_Pete]

Key features of my game.

1. Founded six cities: five on the starting island and one on the "iron island" to the south.
2. Had two relions spread to my civ, and founded Toaism for three in total.
3. Kept missing out on early wonders, though did get GL & HG in the end.
4. Avoided all wars to about 1800 AD, then had over 100 years of continual war first with HC, then with Catherine, then with HC, then with HC...
5. The wars were an utter disaster. Though I was able to keep my enemies off my island easily enough, I was completely unable to defend my sea based resources. Though the food itself wasn´t critical, I really lost out on the health bonuses.

What with only six (coastal) cities, three religions, and long drawn out debilitating wars, this cultural win turned into a tedious slog. Can´t say I enjoyed it overly much. Still, what day is it? Ah yes, first of the month! I can throw myself into the GOTM to consol myself.

 

[uberfish]

Since the tech pace was Super Deity and the game was totally peaceful I decided to play for diplomatic win. Although I could only pick up a few very outdated techs via trade from the least advanced AI (Isabella), the AIs took pity and gave me several techs ranging from Monarchy to Physics (!)

I got liberalism and economics for the civics before the long haul to Mass Media. I had radio over a couple of AIs but was unable to get anything for it, and even giving it away in one case didn't even give me a point for fair trade relations. Using a saved engineer and a quick switch to Universal Suffrage though I was able to complete the UN in 1580. I did not have sufficient diplomatic relations to win at this time (several AIs at +3 to +5) but it was critical to make sure I did get the UN.

I still didn't have democracy at this point, so when I got voted secretary general I immediately passed emancipation, then gave away my happiness resources in order to start getting bonuses for supplying the AI with resources. I also needed to get the +4 fair trade bonus. After being unable to get any significant relations bonuses by giving away Radio and Mass Media, I simply went 100% cash and tried buying votes by giving the AIs 1000+ gold at a time which fortunately worked. To make things more irritating the AI population leader changed 3 or 4 times before eventually settling on HC. Catherine was voting for HC and I couldn't do much with her so I had to get the other four on board.

I was already in representation which kept Augustus happy, and had to bribe Roosevelt twice to switch to his own favourite civic (mercantilism) as well as give him thousands of gold to get the fair trade bonus up. Unfortunately Isabella and Asoka had different favoured religious civics. I was in free religion which kept Asoka at +12 and was able to get Isabella up to +8, but she wouldn't vote for me. I decided to try researching and switching over to Theocracy, which put Isabella at +9 and Asoka at +7, which I think was just sufficient to get both their votes and win the game. So it took me 40 turns of bribery (basically) after finishing the UN to get the win, but I'm glad it was actually possible.

 

[BSmith1068]

Ok - I played this game over the first two days the save was available and didn't take good notes, so here goes as best I can remember:

I started off wanting to have a conquest or domination victory, but got a very late start due to the lack of resources. By the time I was ready to make my first invasion, I already had Bezerkers and was just about to get Astronomy.

First Target: Izzy. Why? She had been ticking me off all game, and no one but the Americans liked her. She also had two holy cities (with widly prolific religons), I had none, and wanted the money from the shrines. the plan was to go for her first, and then maybe America.

I started with Madrid and then her other cities, I didn't bring enough forces on the first wave to take her out completely, so it took a little while to get the second wave up and running. I ended up making her my vassal after either razing or capturing her entire continent. Only city left was a small one on an island south of America. I didn't want to schlep all of my forces to take this last city. This turned out to be a big mistake as I suffered diplo penalties with everyone else for the rest of the game.

Oh - and those shrines? She didn't even have one.

Next target: America. I was already in the neighborhood, he had a ton of wonders, and I belatedly realized that he had no metal. Grenadiers, Cavalry, and eventually Canon made quick work of his longbows. I didn't make the same mistake as I did with Izzy and eliminated him from the game.

I used an engineer to help build the Versailles in Washington and we were off.

At this point I determined that conquest was going to be impossible, and I had not really been playing the diplo field with any care - so I switched to Space as my primary victory option.

I still went for the UN though in the hopes that I could get a diplo win, but planned for space all along. Chicago built the UN (and later the Space Elevator) and I had no problem with the SecGen vote, but not enough for the win. I had no negative points with anyone (except Izzy), but Cathy, the other candidate, was also well liked. Izzy being my vassal probably prevented me from getting the final vote, and her votes for her one city were worthless.

Exactly 19 turns before my last space ship part was to be built the Romans declared on me. No problem however as he never landed anything on my land, and only managed to take out a few fishing boats before I was able to gain air and sea superiority. When he declared I had just started future tech 1, so I stopped all research and started buying a huge army/navy.

Needless to say, it was too little too late for Rome and I launched in 1947 for the 1948 win.

 

[Sarek]

I had every intention of walking over people with my Berserkers, but...

Early success was to somehow pop a GE in my capital city AND the Pyramids were still available when he popped! So I founded the Pyramids in my capital and, at this level, thought I was doing well.

Long story short...
I was near the bottom in score most of the game and slightly behind in the tech race. I fought several times with Catherine, eventually taking her land and cities. The Berserkers did come in handy (especially when updated to Grens ). By the time I had blown her out, Ceasar looked to powerful to take on...Capac was getting very itchy, and the rest seemed peaceful and more militarily advanced, so I thought about a Diplo win?

Long story longer...
I recall researching Mass Media by about 1905, and luckily had another GE pop at roughly the same time, so I built the UN almost immediately. Then UNTIL THE GAME ENDED I tried almost everything to win by Diplo. Luckily I was up against Capac (who didn't like me..or pretty well anyone else at the point I built UN), so I thought I had a chance!
I gifted any resources I could muster. I gifted the odd unit. I gifted some cash. For several decades I had everyone Pleased or better with me, but could NEVER get Ceasar to clinch my win! Unfortunately I was never really UP on techs to gift techs to certainly him, but any others? Eventually he simply became more friendly with Capac and I didn't have enough votes (or power) to change things.

I've had a couple of games go like this for me. I guess it's too tough to win via Diplo when you are too far behind. A bit frustrating, but I was THRILLED to be competitive until the bitter end...losing to a Space Race.

 

[Priah]

Game made me realize how Ive been almost entirely ignoring trade routes. Never really made that huge of a deal about building cities on the coast, but it adds a pretty crazy amount of commerce.

 

[Doc TK]

That's a very interesting comment. How do you choose your next victim?
(Assuming you're choosing violence. I took out Catty Cathy and then changed my mind and went for diplomacy.)

Do you hit the one who's the biggest threat, or do you take out the nearest? Do you go for one who has plenty of wonders? Maybe a little more subtly, do you weigh up the units that each AI is going to face you with - either what they have now, or what they might have if you leave them until later!

What did I get from wiping out Russia? A little extra living space, and Stonehenge (Whoo Hoo!)

I generally go for what makes sense from a direction, threat, etc. I didn't even get StoneHenge for killing Russia - and it took a really long time for those cities to do much for me. Going after a tougher target - to get more wonders and production would have been a better decision in this case.

 

[AgedOne]

I generally go for what makes sense from a direction, threat, etc. I didn't even get StoneHenge for killing Russia - and it took a really long time for those cities to do much for me. Going after a tougher target - to get more wonders and production would have been a better decision in this case.

That definitely struck a chord with me after what happened in this game. I felt that I went for the easiest, nearest target, and was swayed by stupid, meaningless things (like the fact that Cathy didn't like me and would be likely to attack me sooner or later). Going for Rome would have been a smarter strategic move for me, too, in retrospect. Would have been tougher, though, as you said, and I would have had even more of the worry of keeping up on tech while engaged in a war. But, hey, Caesar was the runaway tech leader in my game. He wouldn't have been quite so inclined to tech at full speed if my Berserkers had been all over him. So maybe the whole flavour of the game would have changed with that decision.

Anyway, I'm resolved that in my next game - which will be GOTM16 this weekend - I'm at least going to give this aspect of the game more serious consideration.

 

[Priah]

That definitely struck a chord with me after what happened in this game. I felt that I went for the easiest, nearest target, and was swayed by stupid, meaningless things (like the fact that Cathy didn't like me and would be likely to attack me sooner or later). Going for Rome would have been a smarter strategic move for me, too, in retrospect. Would have been tougher, though, as you said, and I would have had even more of the worry of keeping up on tech while engaged in a war. But, hey, Caesar was the runaway tech leader in my game. He wouldn't have been quite so inclined to tech at full speed if my Berserkers had been all over him. So maybe the whole flavour of the game would have changed with that decision.

Anyway, I'm resolved that in my next game - which will be GOTM16 this weekend - I'm at least going to give this aspect of the game more serious consideration.

I disagree, in my game I went after cathy solely because of all that beautiful dye and recourses. I needed the happiness, it was quickest to get to, and three very good city sites.

To get to rome im pretty sure you had to cross the ocean, were you waiting until astronomy to make your first move?

 

[AgedOne]

I disagree, in my game I went after cathy solely because of all that beautiful dye and recourses. I needed the happiness, it was quickest to get to, and three very good city sites.

To get to rome im pretty sure you had to cross the ocean, were you waiting until astronomy to make your first move?

Hmm. I was probably being a bit harsh on my own play and reasonings when I made that remark before. Yes. There are good strategic reasons for taking the Russian island, as you pointed out. (In fact, later in the game I realised that it also had some other very useful aspects that the home island lacked. Mind you, I couldn't have know that at the time)
As it happened, Moscow was a very useful trade and science city for me, even in the type of game I ended up playing.

On the subject of attacking Rome. I could have got to him, but that was only because of the places he'd chosen to settle which might have been different in your game. There was a discussion in the first spoiler between DynamicSpirit, Myself, Jastrow, Thrallia (iirc) about whether we could reach Caesar or not. Some could. Some couldn't. I posted a screenshot that showed just the edge of the Roman borders in 500AD, that I could have crossed with galleys.

 

[Email10]

Continuing from first spoiler...

I still had no goal in mind, but probably would go for a Spaceship victory. First, however, I wanted to expand my territory.

In 305 AD Stockholm (my double Iron-city) finished the Colossus, greatly improving my income. Together with Great Lightouse I now had a good economy and was able to stay on top of the research race. In 455 AD I learned Civil Service (Machinery came in 245 AD) and started producing Berserkers.

I started my first war in 860 AD and the victim was Russia. I captured Moscow on the first turn of the war which crippled him badly. Cathy was very ill-prepared for a war it seems because I never suffered a counter-attack. She also didn't have anything to deal with my berserkes, so I captured city after city until I had alll of her start island under my control in 1130 AD. Cathy became my Vassal and was left with a lone Island-city. I also got a couple of Generals in this war.

In the 16th century I had a short war with America which gave me two cities.

In 1574, India declared war on me and I still had a good portion of my troops available and quickly sent them to the south. In 1628 I had taken his 2 biggest cities (the only ones that were not Tundra/Ice cities) and he became my vassal as well.

After the Indian War I focused on Infrastructure and Research and founded a couple of Island-cities to gain some missing resources. The rest of the game was peaceful, maybe because I always kept a big army and fleet, so noone dared to attack me.

I launched my Spaceship in 1910 AD

 

[Conquistador 63]

Continuing from 1st spoiler, I had just taken Cathy’s southwestern city on the copper, with a small stack of cats/elephants, since Augustus had settled on the iron island, denying my access to both sources of the metal. From then on, more cats and our first berserkers were produced, taking her island by 920AD. She was able to escape to a small island, and then I finally accepted her capitulation. She was willing to do so for a long time, and I was concerned she could vassal to someone else, but she didn’t had many friends and nobody had cities near her, so it never happened.

On that same year, two events made me choose my diplomatic victory path. While attacking her last city on the island, a berserker/great general with 98% odds of success died in combat. Meanwhile, a great engineer was born in Nidaros. Indeed, he was idle for some 600 years until he could help rush the UN in 1550AD (done in 4 turns with his help and 4 forest chops which I had saved for it in Haithabu).

From then on, I took the beaten path of beelining to Mass Media. I got Liberalism in 1178AD and took Astronomy. I learned Physics in 1400AD, and the free GS was coupled with another one a few turns later to lightbulb Electricity. I had no problem getting tech trades as I had friendly AI’s. I reached Mass Media in 1538AD. Despite having zero wonders in the whole game until the UN, and having only 3 GP’s (+ the free one from Physics), I was pleasantly surprised with my research rate. Being financial, the 3 commerce coast tiles weren’t that bad, at least until my end game date. I kept working them and cottage-spammed wherever I could, instead of running specialists.

In fact, the AI diplomatic environment was really inviting. Roosevelt had the pop lead and would be my rival. Izzy and him were Buddhist friends, but everyone else liked me better, as I never adopted a religion, even when all my 12~13 cities were hindu. What also helped is that I was running Hereditary Rule (Capac’s favorite civic) and Free Religion (Asoka’s favorite civic) since I could. But in a super-dumb move, after I was elected SG, I decided to revolt to Emancipation and since I was already there, to Universal Suffrage too! Of course, Capac abstained in the 1st win vote, so after the 5 turns from revolution I went back to HR and was elected easily in the next vote.

Overall, I had fun playing this game. Many thanks to the staff. I think it will help me to get rid of my wonder-building addiction. After getting them all in WOTM5, it was a nice change of pace.

 

[Civicide]

Fairly weaksauce generic CultVic game. 3 religions spread, failed to build 'mids, barely managed to scrape out of 3 lategame wars where enemies plundered my sea resources, but was otherwise conflict-free.

 

[The Navy Seal]

I was doing pretty good for techs (alittle behind) I was gaurding most of my cities with muskets and all of a sudden Ceasar declared war on me. He took one city razed another and well I gave up. I major problem was that I didn't get any iron Asoka beat me to it! I would of went to war with him but my strougest unit was a horse archer and he had pikemen! I'm hoping the next WOTM is a lower dif I'm used to playing Prince. I think I would have done better if I had more experiance playing island maps.