WOTM 11 First Spoiler

[Gyathaar]

WOTM 11 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements:

1. You must have reached at least 0 AD.

Posting Restrictions

1. You must not discuss any events post 500 AD.
2. Try to limit screenshots to the nearby regions of the map (your region, and the hub, possibly nearby land across water).

How is warfare on a Quick Speed map working out?

 

[budweiser]

In Soviet Russia, world conquers you!

4000 BC – Great Stalin founds first city of Stalingrad in place and immediately a thriving city appears on what before had been a desert hill. Great Stalin then goes on to invent Bronze Working while great patriotic scout explores the region. Soon a worker is purged out of society.

Second city of Stalingrad is built SW to work the copper. Third and fourth cities go east to get horses and flood plains.

Meanwhile Great Stalin builds Great Wall of Stalin in capital out of the skulls of political enemies. Still more skulls are left over so Great Pyramid of Stalin is built with the rest.

Meanwhile cult of Stalin emerges in second city and builds Stone Henge monument to Stalin and then Oracle of Stalin, which inspires Great Stalin to invent Metal Casting.

Great Stalin then builds wonderful hanging garden in capital so russian workers can relax on day off. Third and fourth cities build Great Library of Stalin and Parthenon and Temple of Stalin.

All is good in workers paradise of Russia and more cities get built on the land bridge toward the middle tundra.

 

[Adama]

I still consider myself quite the noob, and in fact, this is only my second WarLords game of any kind. So it’s learn as you go! I am playing the Contender save.

As I mentioned in the pre-game, I hoped to try out a new victory condition (VC). I am not sure how that will work out, but I am giving it a go, leaving doors open.

I moved 1E to settle Moscow. I decided to try to preserve chances for a cultural win, and began researching
…..Mysticism>Poly>AHusbandry>Mansonry>Fishing>BWorking>Priesthood>Pottery>Writing>Mono(for OrgReligion)>Monarchy>Ag>CoL(founded Confucianism)>Math (discovered I needed this to pop CS from ORACLE and delayed Oracle a few turns)>Alpha>Sailing>Lit (path to Music)>Music (for the Free GrtArtist)…..

I will next pick up Meditation (skipped) for a try at founding Taoism (Philosophy), one of only two religions left, the other being Islam (with Divine Right). I already have Hinduism and Confucianism.

I have taken many chances since this is a warlord level WarLord game- I have never ever played any warlord level games, even in vanilla CIV IV, but I understand that I can take more chances, and so far, nothing has backfired.

CIVICS

Adopted Slavery, OrgRel, & HereRule circa (ca.) 93o BC. and was very pleasantly surprised by the goddess Fortuna with only one turn of anarchy. I later revolted to Bearuacracy ca. 110 AD and converted to Hinduism as my state religion in 350 AD (since war was not a consideration and I am not paying much attention to diplomatic relations).

WONDERS/Building Projects

I constructed StoneHenge ca. 930 BC, & Chichen Itza ca. 405 BC, both in Moscow, and built the Parthenon and the Kong Miao in Novgorod, losing the Temple of Artimis by a few turns, and did not try for the Great Wall (did not get the Hanging Gardens either). The Oracle is in Moscow.

FABLES

I have heard fables of some of you more experienced players founding almost all of the religions. I had no such opportunity. I am so isolated, having only met four of the six other civs by 500 AD that I really don’t know where I stand. I have not yet ventured beyond my early exploration and my second city which I founded as a choke point on the peninsula. Another fable (my mistake) was that I thought if you were building a warrior when you connect copper, that the upgrade would be to now be producing an Axeman; no big deal, but it changed to Spearman, and I couldn’t see anyway to change it to Axeman (and keep the production on the warrior)-- I guess that’s the way it is? And, one fable that seems to be coming true is the unimportance (so far) of War Weariness (WW). WW may be even less of a problem for me because I have not fought outside my own turf (except for Barbs).

WAR

I’ve met Sal, Mehmed, Izzy & Monty so far. Basically, each has continued their lone scout or warrior up to my choke city and I’ve dispatched them with an axeman. That’s about the extent of my warring so far.

CULTURAL, smultural, as long as you win….

I have no real idea what I am doing, but I am having fun trying to learn. I’m building temples, sending missionaries to add religion to my cities, and building cultural buildings. IF that doesn’t work out, I may be lost, but I am moving on out the tech tree (for instance, Music, a cultural requirement, also leads to Stalin’s Cossacks). I reached a million population ca. 410 BC, but I have done a good bit of whipping. I will continue to pursue this course and see what develops. More in the second spoiler.

Adama
Military Leader of the last remnant of the Human Race

 

[Thrallia]

I decided to go for a Space Victory on this map, although the tech pace is much slower than I expected.

Perhaps due to my moving Moscow 2S(yes, I moved for 3 turns on Quick Speed!) to the hill on the other side of that lake. That is in my opinion, a much better production spot, but the previous spot had more cottageable land, so would have been a better research base.

Anyway, I founded St. Pete on the river W of Moscow, Novgorod on the peninsula, and by 500AD have founded 3 other cities progressively farther east.(horses, cows, south of the lake by the floodplain)

The only religion I've founded is Taoism, and I've only met 4 of the 6 AI because I stopped exploring at the hub in order to prolong the length of time it took for the AIs to gain those mutual war bonuses.

...I really can't remember much else at this moment, so after I finish and can look through the replay I'll post some more if anything else is significant.

 

[Erkon]

How is warfare on a Quick Speed map working out?

Not well at all. I used horse archers to pillage and razed a few cities, but the map is huge. As of 500 AD, Isabella was almost destroyed, but the AI was close to feudalism and Tokugawa had War Elephants. The narrow land connections enabled the AI to block their main landmass from my pillaging horses. Perhaps someone managed a quicker Horse Archer rush and had better success than me?

BTW, I played the contender save, since I didn't consider Noble to be that more difficult. Gyathaar, no offense intended, I found this map very fun to play.

 

[Kennigit]

Can't remember much from the early game, but I'll do my best:

Basically, I got stonehenge, oracle, collossus for the coastal cities, and founded Confucianism for happiness. Got my whole continent founded by about 250 AD, with my empire stretching to sheep/iron city in the south in the hub area.

@1AD I had 8 cities, with 10 by 210 AD.

My tech rate was slow, since I didn't get pyramids for some early specialists and ran hereditary rule. I was still ahead of AIs, so letting my cities grow fast w/ no happy cap was fine. I didn't bother exploring past the iron and sheep, so I don't think all the AI's met me at 500 AD.

What I regret:

1. 2nd city was fish/horse. I was hoping that I could get a horse invasion up, but land invasion was going to be too far away.

2. My 3rd city got 2 clams and my 4th got copper and overlapped with my capital on stone. Same reasoning, but because I got my 2nd and third city for metal and horse I didn't get marble hooked up as fast to build all the wonders that I should have built (only built main 3). 4th city was good for production, but didn't get marble until 5th city.

3. Not building wonders. I didn't really bother to get them, and I just REXed my continent.

Otherwise I'm happy. Coulda gotten some cottages up faster, but it still was fine.

Real fun game, although it was lengthy with sea invasion.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

My autolog is all jumbled up since I played other games between sessions of this one (not finished this game yet).

Basically, Wonder Spam and a bit of killing of warriors and scouts. Moscow settled in place, St. Petersburg to the east to get cows and horses.

Early Wonders:
1180BC - Stonehenge (St. Petersburg)
790BC - Great Wall (Moscow)
370BC - The Pyramids (Moscow)
125BC - Oracle (St. Petersburg) [Metal Casting]
170AD - Temple of Artemis (Moscow). Never built this before, wanted to see the movie
260AD - Colossus (St. Petersburg)
440AD - Parthenon (Moscow)
Founded Novgorod on the isthmus to the south near the 2 sefood and rice resources. Chopping a library and the Great Library about to be built there with the help of a Great Engineer.

Don't know what victory condition I will go for. Probably go for a big domination score, by spamming settlers soon and building the Hanging Gardens to get a pop boost when I have as many cities up as possible, then go bashing heads. Maintenance is cheap at this level, I noticed. Will need to build some defensive troops though. Most of my troops are patrolling the icy middle bit killing anyone who gets near them c. 500AD.

Went for the contender save since I 've never played always war or this sort of map. I guess it's a good MP map and I guess always war is how most MP games go anyway.

EDIT: Forgot about building the Pyramids! Fixed now.

 

[Thrallia]

Not well at all. I used horse archers to pillage and razed a few cities, but the map is huge. As of 500 AD, Isabella was almost destroyed, but the AI was close to feudalism and Tokugawa had War Elephants. The narrow land connections enabled the AI to block their main landmass from my pillaging horses. Perhaps someone managed a quicker Horse Archer rush and had better success than me?

BTW, I played the contender save, since I didn't consider Noble to be that more difficult. Gyathaar, no offense intended, I found this map very fun to play.

I decided from my two test games that because of how large the map seemed, and because of the faster AI teching speed of Quick and Mutual Wars against us, that I would be better off going for a space race victory rather than a military victory.

Not only does it take forever to get your troops anywhere, but the AI essentially gets 600% the production you do(well, probably closer to 400-500% due to difficulty level), since they are not going to war amongst themselves.

I could see myself taking out one or two close AI later on to reduce the number of troops that can be built to distract me, but I'm definitely not going to go all warlike on the AI...unless I have the ability to nuke all their production centers

 

[Kennigit]

Interesting that you say that. On this game I feel that war is the natural way to go, as on this difficulty (I did contender) the AIs don't go on the offensive. Even if you fall short of conquest/domination, you are still easily in the lead. In addition, you can outproduce and expand faster than computers, giving you military might.

 

[Harbourboy]

the AIs don't go on the offensive

You have got to be kidding, right? In my game, that's ALL the AI did. I have never experienced such aggression in any previous game.

This map was crazy! I have never seen such a nutty map. Like islands stuck in the end of a snake.

I submitted this game so long ago that I can hardly remember what happened in the early game, but I think I had about 4 cities by this stage, with just about every wonder possible in my capital and leading on most of the statistical measures. I had not set out to attack anybody, because they all just seemed so far away. The 'Always War' condition was a new concept for me and it meant having to consider a completely different tech path to normal seeing as trading was out of the question.

I had started settling down the snakey isthmus bit by this time, creating an impregnable plug to protect my empire. Or so I thought.

 

[Kennigit]

I guess I got lucky- I didn't get attacked until I was well on my way. Earlier on acouple people scraggled their way towards me on boats, but a quick whip quickly killed them if they posed a threat. the largest fleet to reach my mainland was a mere couple of galleys from the east landing about 4 guys. Later on, tons of guys kept attacking me in 1 particular city, but all I had to do was keep a decent sized stack there using siege weapons and the right promotions.

I think part of why I was successful was because I didn't do a land based invasion. I waited a while and got lots of catapults to go attack our two neighbors by sea. The AI's down south sent their units through the skinny isthmus's- providing very easy collateral damage.

 

[Munro]

At this difficulty level, I'm surprised no-one has posted an early domination or conquest win yet? Perhaps the 'Quick' game speed setting, and large map, make that unrealistic?

Anyway, at 500AD, I'm aiming for a cultural victory, and so far have built 7 Wonders, founded confuciansism and christianity, and have 4 cities on my original plot. I seem to have a reasonable tech lead.

View attachment 156372

Not sure whether it's ultimately faster to concentrate on building Wonders early on, as I have here (i.e. focusing on early production) or simply growing those cottages right from the start? Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Harbourboy]

I'm fascinated to know how your game turns out, Munro.

 

[Munro]

Cheers, Hb. I'll post a write-up on the final spoiler thread once it comes out...

 

[Thrallia]

@Munro: Any building that produces wonder, that has been been around for 1,000 years gives double culture...so wonder-spamming early is a great idea for cultural wins, if you are planning on going with a cottage economy for the rest of your culture...just be sure you have a GP farm without any of those wonders in it so that you can accumulate mostly Great Artists for the big culture bombs.

10 GA's can bring a city with 0 culture to legendary immediately.

 

[Vynd]

With BtS and patches to Vanilla and Warlords out, I've decided to give up on this one. It just didn't hold much appeal for me personally. Always war meant lots of fighting, and the Quick Speed and long walking distances meant that offensive warfare was a pain. Even with Warlord difficulty I think it's going to take some creative tactics and/or a great deal of methodical, patient warmongering to score a victory (except maybe a time victory?) and I'm not up for either at the moment. I'll be curious to see what other players achieve though.

 

[Htadus]

Hay Thrallia, look like we going for the same VC. It was just irresistable to do a Russian Spaceship in Honor of Yuri Gagarin.

I settled on top of stone and founded 2 more cities very fast. Poped a settler for the 3rd city. Eventually built 3 more cities and played defensively. Built several early wonders and messed up the Oracle Education sling by 4 turns around 30 AD due to loosing focus and learing teches I did not need. Oh well. I guess this is what it means to risk big and win big or loose medium Missed Hanging Garden by 2 turns(wanted it ) and lost couple others (intending to loose) to keep additional income to keep science up.

Planned early and kept the dominance of the coastal waters very early with Frigates. This gave 2 GG's.

Tried an amphibious landing in France (beyond the limits of this spoiler) and captured a coastal city. I am about to loose this city because I sent two granadiers scouting ahead and French sent back a force of almost 20 units and killed off most of my original team (6 units including 2 Granadier warlords)

Well that is for another spoiler which I rarely write.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Htadus and Thrallia, count me in for the space race.
I'm looking forward the final spoiler. This game was very interesting to play, but up to 500AD it was pretty uneventful. I was viewing my autolog and I noticed I had defeated the grand total of 2 barb and 1 japanese warriors by that date!
Always war or not, with this map and settings it has been a true builders' dream... up to this point
By the cut date I had 5 cities, and 5 wonders (SH, Pyramids, Oracle, Colossus, Parthenon).

 

[Harbourboy]

with this map and settings it has been a true builders' dream

This is so unfair. In my game, I was under constant attack from as soon as the AI could reach me.

 

[Conquistador 63]

I didn't bother to go deep into the isthmus early, which might have helped me. My contact dates until the spoiler limit were 2140BC (Izzy), Toku (195BC), Sal & Lou 410AD. But if it is any comfort to you, things changed drastically later on.