WOTM 38 Final Spoiler

[babybluepants]

WOTM 38 Final Spoiler

So how did your game go after 1AD? Please tell everyone and discuss it in this thread, subject to...

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in WOTM 38, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual game saves.

 

[kcd_swede]

Just as I am able to start getting tech that I can trade, Bismark declares war. next turn, he has two of my cities. (Grens + knights vs archers, spears, axe ... and not very many of those, even).

My last tech was Education (which I bulbed half because the GS was made in one of the cities I was going to lose). Retire at 980AD. If all AI could be nice and not war with me, I could probably have won, since I was catching up fast with largest land and every green tile was village or town. And if pigs had wings they could fly.

 

[Mitchum]

Way to stick with it, kcd!! I was discouraged in the early BC years with my poor economy and didn't see light at the end of the tunnel. I tried to glue wings on my pig but they kept falling off!

 

[dima42]

1808ad diplomatic loss (i could have chosen to lose by space instead a couple turns later).

i guess the only noteworthy thing that happened was that i took over the main indian island with cats against rifles .

but honestly i needed to have done that by 500ad or so to stand a chance (i finished that war in 1595ad). as it is, i had to send 75 cannons and 20 infantry on a suicide mission to try to stop huyna from winning space. it didn't succeed, then huyna got the chance to conquer me. but the game was over before he took too many cities.

the correct endgame was to ignore huyna and gather population from bismark in hopes of a diplomatic victory. i don't think i would have gotten it (washington had un and had monty/victoria as vassals), but i had about 30% of pop and may have gotten incas' 20% behind me. but i realized that too late.

things i "learned":
*deity warlords builds a ton of units (my 75 cannons and 20 infantry didn't even stand a chance after one city)
*siege is overpowered before bts (cats vs. rifles is in fact doable)

bbp, thanks for a game where i felt like i may have had a chance. i think if i was to replay it i probably would have a really good chance, mostly by settling the extra settler one square from gold instead of two .

 

[Duckweed]

This map is a quite general and common, still above average due the land available to human player. The biggest or rather common problems in the opening are happiness and commerce. The gold site is nice, but due to the serious barbarian swarm, I can only managed to grab it ~2000BC. Most of the decent sites are far from capital, which took a lot effort to settled since you need an Axe to guard and workers to preroad to the city. And yes, each commerce shines in the early stage.

I started the total war in 740AD with 30+ cossacks to invade German, who was the biggest AI. I bribed Bismark to DOW the most advanced HC some turns ago. However, I did not have techs to bribe HC leaving the war, which cause Bismark to vassal to HC. One of the annoying feature of Warlord is that AIs won't talk with you for a long time no matter how much loss in the war. As a result, I have to DOW his Master HC immediately, in ~900AD, German was complete gone and my cossacks enter the Incan empire, then I saw Riflemans on a hill city. That's not a surprise in Warlord deity. The thing surprised me that time was that my empire was 100g deficit even at 100% gold slider.

Except the poor Vicky, who was DOWed by Monty and HC, I had to fight all other AIs having Riflemans.

The game was ended unexpected. I aimed for Conquest victory. In 1250AD, I DOWed the last AI Gandhi while still fighting with Monty, this action immediately added 5+ angry faces in my whole empire. Next turn, the victory screen popped up and Monty was willing to capitulate.

Spoiler :

Winning Warlord Deity seems to be a lot faster, at least I have not won BTS deity that early.

 

[babybluepants]

Duckweed. That was the challenger save, in case anyone's wondering.

The speed has to do with earlier cavalry, right? I find that I also get abnormal amounts of cash trade in Warlords, and run 100% science continuously from 1000 BC to 500 AD. Another thing - both this and the last deity WOTM were effectively Pangaea maps, requiring no ships for domination. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it's faster - they certainly get to Rifling much faster than BTS AIs.

@Mitchum&kcd,
I think the contender save is considerably easier than challenger, though someone could perhaps prove me wrong (nudging Duckweed ). There is a provision: settling right next to the gold is essential, as is quick Wheel-Writing. If you can do that, the game just flies after 1000 BC. In my one test run, it felt like I totally blew away any previous deity attempt I've played.

 

[Mitchum]

@bbp I wasn't saying that the contendor save wasn't easier. Obviously it's easier with all of the extra starting units. What I was saying is that unless you were prepared for the initial hit to your economy and planned for it, it makes the game harder than expected and presents a situation that doesn't come up in a typical ancient start game.

 

[Duckweed]

The speed has to do with earlier cavalry, right? I find that I also get abnormal amounts of cash trade in Warlords, and run 100% science continuously from 1000 BC to 500 AD. Another thing - both this and the last deity WOTM were effectively Pangaea maps, requiring no ships for domination. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it's faster - they certainly get to Rifling much faster than BTS AIs.

Moreover, warlord AIs value cash much lower than BTS, about 1.5 G/B.

Because human player could have cavalries much earlier, with enough number of cavalries, riflemans don't stand even hiding behind 60% culture defense.

 

[zamint3]

Nice game Duckweed

Quick questions:

1. What was your initial tech order?
2. Did you bring your cats to the front with your cossacks?
3. The statistics screen tells us that you currently have 78 cossacks, you built 117 and lost 50. Does this mean you drafted 11 cossacks? Can you do that?

I'm struggling with my 2nd attempt.

 

[babybluepants]

Does this mean you drafted 11 cossacks? Can you do that?

No, but you can upgrade older units.

 

[zamint3]

No, but you can upgrade older units.

I knew I was missing something....

 

[Duckweed]

Nice game Duckweed

Quick questions:

1. What was your initial tech order?
2. Did you bring your cats to the front with your cossacks?
3. The statistics screen tells us that you currently have 78 cossacks, you built 117 and lost 50. Does this mean you drafted 11 cossacks? Can you do that?

I'm struggling with my 2nd attempt.

1. Agri->TW->BW->AH->Mys->Fishing->Pottery->Writing...->CoL->bulb Phi
BW before AH is very important for better opening, since I did not want to research Archery, so I need a way to spam warriors (if NO copper in BFC), forest chop is the only efficient way to do so. In this opening, the production is crucial before you deal with the 1st wave of barbarian swarm.

2. I built some Catas very late since they are the cheapest units as city police.

3. I also produced 11 HAs and used a GM to upgrade them to cossacks.

 

[The-Hawk]

Diplo win in 1840 AD . Finished UN in 1545 AD, took me forever to get enough votes to win.

At one point, I thought all was lost. Bismarck had highest population, I needed HC and Gandhi to vote for me to even come close (the others pretty much hated me). I needed to switch to G's civic to get his votes, but this meant abandoning HC's favorite. I had same religion as HC but he favored Bismarck because Bismarck shared religion and civics. Bismarck also was getting votes from Washington (who was pretty small). At one point, Bismarck even won the Secretary General vote. Thought I was toast.

Luckily, HC took Vicky as a vassal. I was able to bribe Bismarck to DOW on Vicky. This pulled HC into war with Bismarck without giving me minus diplo with HC. With HC and B at war, I had HC and G solidly in my camp. However, the three of us did not have enough votes to win (by far). I ended up farming/windmilling every possible tile. Also researched to environmentalism for the +6 health and build a ton of health buildings. I also provided extra health/happy resources to my voting block to grow their population. Little by little, I gained ground, crawled over the finish line decades later.

Not a fast time, but a win is a win.

 

[Htadus]

Great Job Hawk and Duckweed.

But I am so much better than you guys, The AI had no chance against me.

But 2 barb warriors each attacking my capital and gold city had way better chance against me. I watched in horror as I saw my capital defended by 1 warrior fall to 2 barb warriors. One of the barbs had killed one of my warriors sitting on a forest so he was wounded but he managed to finish off my warrior. I had pulled back one of several fog busters and one was in front of my old capital defended by a very red barb warrior. There were two warriors next to my second city so if the 2 defenders can hold off the attack I would get a free capital relocation and my fog busters would be able to take the city back. Next thing I saw was that I got a conquest loss. How could 2 warriors kill two warriors fortified in a city .

So like said, the AI had no chance against me. Barb were a different story all togather. I did not even get a chance to play one more turn .

In all true honesty, it was my own mistake that caused the loss since I had forgotton to revolt to slavery, I could not whip my spear in the capital.