WOTM 10 First Spoiler

[Gyathaar]

WOTM 10 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements:

1. You must have reached at least 0 AD.
2. You must know the general location of the majority of other civs.

Posting Restrictions

1. You must not discuss any events post 500 AD.
2. Try to limit screenshots to the coastal regions or nearest areas of the map (not remote lands near the outer edges of map).

How are you managing the "politics" of this unusually crowded map?

 

[da_Vinci]

First, a question: Any limitations on posting screenshots? My 365 AD save has me extended to the edge of the map, which might reveal resources that some have not seen?

While I wait for that answer, here is how I have handled politics: trade with everyone I can and let the chips fall where they may.

Result: most are annoyed with me, but my power is enough to be safe (I hope), and I have a score lead in 365 AD. Can you believe that the +7 is with Monte!?

More later, but I settled in place, and key was taking Beshbalik early, which held the copper NW of our island. Stalin is dead and I own Russia. So far so good, but having never yet won Warlords on monarch, not counting any chickens yet!

dV

 

[Gyathaar]

First, a question: Any limitations on posting screenshots? My 365 AD save has me extended to the edge of the map, which might reveal resources that some have not seen?

Hmm.. tough question.. perhaps limit screenshots to showing the coastal regions and the nearest "half" of the map...

 

[blastoidstalker]

Basic strategy early was to find military resources and exploit them to conquer neighbors who do not have them.

Found out we were on an island with bronze not present bet within a city radius. I tried unsuccessfully to get a settler out to the copper failed and instead built Stonehenge in my second city (on the western end of the island.) to push my boundaries out and take the copper from the Mongols, only to find iron on the island 3 turns later.

In terms of war. I took out a Mongol city first, then took out the Russian civ (which had build the great wall, Chicken Itza and Temple or Artimis) then went back to finish of the Mongol. Asoka declared on me and was conquered, though he had huge numbers of archers in his capital. Final Mehmed declared on my about 5 turns before macemen and I am currently working on him with the help of Shaka and Brennus.

The war is different in this game. Secondary cities are not that difficult to take but capitals have troop numbers that I usually only see in the late game, catapults key here to work them down. I actually thought there were no horses on the map till Mehmed came at me with them.

During my first war with Kubla, Egypt and somebody else declared war on me, but being on an island kept anything from really happening.

Kept my economy afloat by selling old techs to civs for cash. Made about 1500 gold off of literature.

I have put three warlords in my capital along with the heroic epic to create a troop producing monster (units come out with 11 experiences every 2 turns).

In good shape planning now to remove adjacent non Hindu civs from the map.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Everything went OK up to 500AD. Got Feudalism from Oracle. Longbows by 1000BC.

Everything went wrong after that.

I got a 93xp longbow though, without a warlord.

 

[whb]

I went for what I expect will be the usual city placement -- London on the start square, York also on the main island, with both sea resources and just able to work the copper north across the sea, Nottingham on "Ireland" just able to work a flood plain south across the sea (and struggling to grow for ages).

Resource techs were prominent in the first few I researched - bronze working, etc.

I built the Oracle and founded Confucianism in York. This was tremendously helpful. The culture helped ensure my borders did cover the copper, and confucianism spread pretty quickly without missionaries (two civs even converted to it) so by the time I got a GP, it was a handy boost to my income. York is also my heroic epic city, now also with two military instructors.

I've had a few civs declare on me, but even in the early days it was pretty easy to deal with. Lots of civs have no ports, and the few that do have a port are easy to blockade with a trireme or two! Stalin was the first to declare, and I was happily able to blockade St Petersburg for a very long time while I built an army, and then took the city. That was my beachhead, and as various civs have declared on me at various times, I've expanded to conquer Stalin completely, and also take Mongolia's biggest two cities. And I haven't had to declare war on anyone yet (but will on Toku soon).

Wonders included Oracle, Great Library, and Colossus (all built), and the Pyramids and Hanging Gardens (conquered in Moscow)

The other fun thing is that even though most civs are mildly annoyed with me they keep wanting to negotiate open borders periodically - presumably for access to attack or trade with other countries.

 

[Oddible]

This did not go as expected. I'm a marginal Prince player and with all the pre-game talk I was overshadowed by fear of continuous wars and a struggle for space. I played the regular contender class. This didn't happen...

- Went immediately for sailing to see if I could grab a continental city
- Didn't get the square everyone was talking about at the river mouth (I saw borders that looked a bit to close) so I went for the adjacent tile.

My 1st Continental City:

Spoiler :

- Third city was on the island, started pumping out archers
- Was pleasantly surprised at one point to find that I could make Axemen despite having built no mines, my continental city had picked up the copper to the ne (was temporary). Built as many axes as I could!
- Offered Open Borders to anyone who asked. Goal: keep as many friendlies as possible.
- At one point Kublai Khan declared war on Russia so I started mustering troops, a few turns later he asked for my help and I was ready with a stack to take back Khan's nearest city and prep for a march to Moscow, I wiped Russia that war.
- Several turns later Khan declared on me! I destroyed his second city and called a white peace.

Agreed, the capital cities have insane stacks of troops. Will need to have plenty of bombards on hand to work them down.

Didn't get into the hairy wars I anticipated - everyone is mostly friendly with me (except Monte).
I'm giving away a lot of techs and some resources to stay friends with some key civs.
I currently have 8 civs with +4 or greater and only 2 in the negatives (Monte & Khan).
I'm currently 2nd and Egypt is first.

Minimap:

Spoiler :

Space view of my lands:

Spoiler :

Oh yeah... one more comment... IRON!!!

BTW, it's been a VERY long time since I played a GOTM - this one is exceptionally fun!!!

 

[budweiser]

I did really well building my first two cities. Then I settled 'ireland'. Then I attacked straight north to get a foot hold on the 'continent'. I built SH early and later founded the 'church of england' with a prophet.

The trouble I had was carving out enough cultural space on the main land in order to give me more room to work.

Then I saw mansa musa and got so transfixed on wiping him out that I did my self in as well. I beat him in one war and razed his capital. Then a little while later, ragnar asked me to declare on mansa again but this time my classical army met mansa's medieval army and I got wiped out to a man.

Oh well, at least I brought him down. He ended up a vassal of shaka or monty. Cant remember which, they were the leaders when I resigned.

 

[blastoidstalker]

I ignored "ireland" Entirely. Ramses got it. Istead I concetrated on getting the beachhead first, wich I feel was a good choice in the long run.

for big stacks
Asoka has 12 Archers 3 swords and a spear in his capital.

 

[AU_Armageddon]

Laughed to see it was an island
No stealing workers afterall. On flip side, island that allowed not one phenomenally uber OCC site, but two! Built a workboat, changed to worker at size 2, slaving it with bronze, finishing workboat, and riproaring off.

Built/chopped Stonehenge and more boats while growing and then settler to claim 2nd uber spot. Then Oracle for Code to culturalise the new city followed by heading straight for Alphabet with an eye towards Music for a GA to make a solid beachhead.

Got many techs from Alphabet, and then went Lit and built Great Library and National Epic. Used 2 prophets to get Theology and Civil Service going to Beurocracy about 600BC as I got Construction and starting slaving many catapults.

Mansu tends to tech best, so I made decision for Mansu to be my bested buddy at all costs, and to hell with everyone else.
Got Music and my GA as I landed all my forces choosing Mehmed's spot as the best launching point with intent to plough everyone anti-clockwise to Mansu, then clockwise after that.
Buddying Mansu paid off with an early trade for Currency letting me trade with all for the funds to afford a huge rolling invasion (keeping everything and constantly slaving more forces).

Thus, the invasion began 250 BC with the Mehmed's hot beachfront property and a cultural bomb:

Outta time... it was a fairly straightforward momentum cept I stopped bothering with Mansu and took his cities too. Think everyone was dead by 500AD cept Brennus who I kept alive with one surrounded city in the north-east corner. I kept every town in roughly the west half of the map keeping the English Empire just below the domination limit...

 

[Infantry#14]

Man, I make too many mistakes in this WOTM 10.

I conquer 2 cities in the continent, but turns out I got backstab by too many civ and must gift them away to the weak civ. If the elephant, horse or later an important resource is at the core cities (island), then I'm certain I can win this.

 

[Harbourboy]

I have been a bit lazy in this game and consequently am stuck in the doldrums at the time of this mi-game spoiler.

I settled in place and then settled another city in Scotland.

At 500 AD, I still only have two cities, because I did not make it to settle in Ireland before Eqyptian culture engulfed it.

I missed out on Oracle by 2 turns and Pyramids by 7. I should have whipped both of them but forgot (in the rapid fire flurry of Enter Key pressing that this game encouraged).

I have not fought a single battle and I pass my day mainly by continual trading of technology. With 17 civilisations, there is always someone you can trade to.

I therefore have technological parity, and stacks of cash, but nothing to do with it all.

Cultural victory seems out of the question, with only two cities and one religion. Space race sounds difficult as well. Can space parts be built in two cities? I don’t have enough points for Time victory. Conquest is too far off. So that leaves Diplomatic or Domination or Loss as possible outcomes.

 

[Bigben34]

Greetings.
I founded in place, then built 2nd and 3rd cities in Scotland and Ireland. I established Judaism in my capital, then built stonehenge, oracle (used to get metal casting), pyramids, great library, colossus. I used my first great prophet to make Temple of Solomon. Then the Russian city on top of the gold culturally converted to me.

Sold literature for about 1500 gold.
Am tech/score leader at 0 AD without any war. Half the world has converted to Judaism, giving out techs to anyone else who frowns. Nobody has declared war on me yet. Will soon try for the other 2 wonders which boost science and gold from religious buildings, which should give insane boosts.

Haven't decided yet what victory type, I thought conquest/domination would be too easy.

Bigben34

 

[Oddible]

Panic!! I've never played with HoF before and something odd just happened... I just had a city flip to the Egyptians with ZERO WARNING, ZERO TURNS OF UNREST!? How can this happen!? I would have moved units there if I had any warning at all!! I can say after this experience that this is either a major bug in HoF or 2 thumbs down to HoF.

 

[Harbourboy]

too easy.

I hate it when people say that. Makes me feel like a complete loser because no victory type seems "easy" to me in this game!

 

[blastoidstalker]

Greetings.
I thought conquest/domination would be too easy.

Bigben34

I agree with Harbour Boy. There are diffiuclties with trying to conquest if you can not adjust to the number of civs and its consequences. Also I feel there are always challenges to the game, even when you are rolling and already have things won you can still do things to quicken the pace

 

[Markus5]

Not the best game for me. Missed Stonehenge by 2 turns and the Oracle by 3. Got two religions though. Build three cities on the island and a fourth on the island to the southwest, but it was lost to Egypt's culture. I was attacked four times. First war with Monty and he captured London for one turn because I couldn't get troops moved quickly. Later, Egypt landed troops that I easily dispatched. Japan and Spain both declared but did little. Spain circled with an empty galley. I don't think Japan was even on the sea. Toku marched troops up to the tiles on the mainland that I owned because of cultural expansion and sat there, wondering how to get to me. I'm near the bottom of the scores, but have lots of cash and tech. I'm not sure what to do. No obvious paths to take. I don't have enough troops to feel comfortable attacking the mainland. The cities I can see are very well defended.

 

[dfi]

My first GOTM. First game in 10ish months too.

Settled both islands, and one directly north in the river nook.



Spent the game up this point kissing butts of powerful neighbors and getting taken advantage of by allies so they wouldn't get ticked and crush me... I had nothing to do with Stallins death.

I'm pretty much bottom of the pile. The only reason I'm not dead is I seemed to have created a pretty good schism so when someone attacks someone else I can usually manipulate it into a huge world war and I just hide on my island and defend my 1 town

 

[Ronnie1]

I played C63's test game. In my test game, I did not build enough early troops and was not prepared for the invasion that followed. I figured I had a shot at the early wonders without sacrificing too much troop production if I followed a little different path.

I founded in place and started on a worker, and parked the warrior in the west.
Builds in London went Worker, WB, Settler, WB, Barracks, Archer, Settler, Archer, Pyramids completed on T118 (730BC). Chopped all three forests!

York founded on the W hill (2440BC) getting 2 Fish, Copper, Gems in fat cross.
Started Stonehenge immediately, completed 2020BC. Chopped both forests here. Then built Barracks, Galley, WB, Worker, Archer, Archer, Archer, then Axes!

Nottingham founded in Ireland 1330BC S of Incense, started on Lighthouse followed By Granary.

Research path; BW, Masonry, Wheel, Myst, Hunt, Archery, AH, Writing, Sailing, Math, Poly, Priest, Iron Working, Pottery, Metal Casting, Const, Monarchy, (Traded for Currency, Mono, Alpha, Meditation, AG, HBR, CoL, Calendar), Vassalage, Great Engineer got Machinery, and @ 500AD I'm 1 turn from Civil Service.

I knew if I could get SH, the culture would push my borders out early and often, and help borders for other new cities. I wanted my first cities as strong as possible because who knows what kind of cities I'd be able to capture. The Pyramids would allow early growth (Representation) and Police State later when needed, and I was hoping to get Great Library form GE. I missed out on GL so used the GE for Machinery. York is my main troop producer. I settled a GP there, 2 GG's settled as Military Instructors, built Heroic Epic there and later Ironworks. London is my primary Science city and my primary Great People generator with National Epic.

Politics
In 1180BC I switched to Hindu with about a third of all known civs already Hindu. I was trading Fish to Ramesses for Gold with open borders (the only OB and trade at that point). The next turn Ramesses switched to Judaism, a foreboding of things to come. I opened borders with all Hindu's immediately, figuring I was in with the majority and would be able to exploit that for tech trading later.

In 550BC (T130), I had a few troops on the mainland. Stalin was at war Kahn and had taken 2 of his cities including a coastal city near York. Stalin had 4 workers on 2 squares within range of my troops, I went to bed thinking about my options. When I got back to the game and looked at the stats, Stalin was near the top in score and power, I decided to move now. I declared and captured the workers. I continued to land Axes on the mainland to counter what seemed like an endless supply of Swords coming from Stalins interior. After I got Cats, I captured the coastal city, but I didn't really like the location of it (to close to York and on the Silk) so I actually returned control to the Mongols (was trying to keep them friendly). Well they immediately gave it back to Stalin for peace in there war. I still had a sword in the city, wierd. So the next turn I had to move a new unit into the city and burned it to the ground. I then moved north towards St. Petes which was captured in 200AD. I thought Stalin had expended most of his attack units trying to take out my Copper and Gems, I killed 2 Warlord Swords and about 10-12 units total near the Gem mine. I was wrong, in 215AD Stalin re-captured St Petes with a stack that was about 10 units strong. But now I was starting to produce Longbows, and in 275AD I founded Hastings on the mainland north of the Silks and still on the coast. Stalin moved about 6-8 units on Hastings, but Walls and Longbows made a successful attack unlikely. At 500AD, he still had the stack fortified on a hill next to Hasting and I was starting to make some Crossbows to counter his Swords. I am middle of the pack in score, top third in techs, and teching at 100% thanks to selling of older techs. The leader now in both Score (1024pts) and Tech is Ramesses by a pretty good margin. He has a score lead over Mehmed (824pts), well ahead of my total (629pts). Ramesses is at least 5 techs ahead of me at this point (Drama, Theology, Music, Engineering, Optics, and Civil Service (only 1 turn for me though). All in all, a pretty good start for me.

 

[cabert]

I was so excited at the game that I started a long playing session as soon as I got the initial save DLed.
Settled in place teched to sailing immediately, settled the double fish + copper on the "continent" city, got myself stonehenge, settled a third city on the incense, then went totally (it was 1 AM, and I was awake since 6am on the day before. I guess playing when overtired is a bad idea).
I saw monte had declared on ramses, thought I could get some piece of the plunder and declared on ramses. I set my one galley on units shipping, landed all my units (I had 3 ), and found a weakly defended holy city for me to take.
Next turn, my 3 units had died to the lone archer and stalin declared on me.
not too brilliant, but hey, let's fight !
I defended against the russian stack, couldn't build any real units anymore (only archers), and just couldn't think clearly anymore...
I send all my weaklings into russian territory and of course losts them all.
In the meantime, montezuma decided I was easy picking and declared on me.
He took the incense city very quickly (not much to brag about, I had moved my troops to russia).
All my land was pillaged, including the nets, I was in no shape to fight efficiently, even ramses didn't want to sue for peace, seeing I was so weak...
That's where I gave up. I didn't even keep the save, so no submission from me this month.

I tried it again in the daylight, and it felt a lot better (did almost the same in the beginning, but didn't declare before having troops ). No submission of course, but I thought I could still have some fun with this game.