WOTM 11 First Spoiler

[Jove]

I didn't bother to go deep into the isthmus early, which might have helped me.

I hear ya. I tried to avoid the AI altogether for as long as I could and didn't meet anyone until Isabella in 140AD. I hoped it would cut out some tail-end war weariness if it didn't start counting for 50+ turns. We'll have to wait for the results in the final spoiler...

I'm going space too. I like it that there is so much competition for that award this month More details later.

 

[Thrallia]

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

I stopped at the hub, and built a city 3N of that iron in the tundra, stopped there and just fortified myself on those hills. I'd met 4 of the AIs by 500AD and only had to kill 1 troop per AI, and some random barbs.

 

[MarkM]

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.

I don't think you (or others) need to feel bad about that. I sent my scout out all over the hub spokes, and met all the other civs v. early (way before AD) before scout was finally dispatched by barbs. I think all I did (other than finding a couple goodie huts) was making the other civs friendlier to each other because of the common enemy bonus -- in hindsight I wish I'd just stayed squirreled in my spoke of the wheel & hope that the AI might start wars with each other before they got the common enemy bonus.

I had thought of cultural victory, built most of hte wonders but gave up when I didn't have religion for so long (not until I founded Islam). Of course then no matter how small the odds (<5% in at lest one case), I nearly always produced GA for my great person -- I think I got maybe 6+ of those, vs. 2 scientist, 2 merchant, 1 engineer, 0 prophets. Even though I never ran any artist specialists -- just all from wonder GP.

 

[Jove]

We founded Judaism in 2500BC in Moscow. It became our first and always state religion. Also founded Confucianism and Taoism which were nice for temples and monasteries in select cities, but overall not very influential. Could have had Christianity and Islam, and maybe all if we'd really wanted to, but the goal is a fast space finish. Techs like Theology (and archery!) we never bothered to look up.

We got lucky with a couple bonus forests spontaneously growing in our core. Who knows if that gave a decisive advantage, but it sure didn't hurt.

Avoiding the AI worked great, they didn't know about us at all for over 4000 years. This meant we could get by with a minimalist military and focus on infrastructure and expansion. My usual strategy for space games is to bee-line Oxford University (not saying this is the best strategy, I honestly don't know). This time, with the Industrious wonder-building bonus, the nice production spots, stone, Monotheism and the low price for great people we focused more on building wonders and using specialists for the gpp's and beakers.

Pyramids in St. Petersburg in 1360BC. Switch to Representation to boost science, but wait 2 turns for the library in Moscow to finish- we don't have any specialists yet to benefit from Rep, we actually completed The Pyramids too soon! Anyway, St. Petersburg, working cows, hills, stone and copper, was our main wonder-city. By 500 it also held The Oracle, Great Wall, Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens. The Great Library we saved for Moscow. The Parthenon went up in a tertiary city to avoid contaminating the gene pool with artist points this early. The Colossus hasn't yet been built by anyone

In 55BC we learned Philosophy and switched to Pacifism. We stuck with that for the rest of this spoiler period and generated great people faster than I've ever witnessed. Most we joined to Moscow. It had two Super Engineers in no time- I felt with all the bonuses it would be a waste to use a great engineer on a wonder. Moscow was joined by merchants and scientists too-after the Academy- and also got the Temple of Solomon. And there were great people left over for an academy or two elsewhere, and we still managed to lightbulb the lion's share of Education with another great scientist in 170AD. We delayed researching the rest of that that in favor of currency first, but whatever.

I'm not sure how many universities we had at 500, I think it was 2. We've got Metal Casting and Machinery, looking forward to Printing Press. We produce 212bpt at 440, the closest date for which I have a note.

The gotm is never 'always war' or 'quick' so I don't have any benchmarks with which to judge if this is a competitive performance or not. Usually my best is 2nd place so I won't be surprised if someone beats me again this time, but overall it seems like the techs are coming in about as quickly as they can.