WOTM 43 - Game submitted or abandoned

[kcd_swede]

WOTM 43 Final Spoiler
How did your game go?

Reading Requirements
Stop! If you are participating in WOTM 43, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless:
You have submitted your entry or will not submit.

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

 

[Sleepless]

Well after missing out on the circumnavigation to JC I found the map you could go North to South but not East to West. The 1 extra movement point would have been very handy in this game.

So looking at the surrounding area, lack of production for space I thought the best option was for a military type victory.

So self teched to feudalism, had already settled an ivory city so started on WK with cats/phants whilst teching slowly towards astro for galleons and extra movement points. HC went down with cataphants/maces, ditto Shaka though I did have a few conquistadors/grens for Han and Brennus. JC was a bit tougher at the end as he had rifles but ended up vassaling him for a conquest victory by vassals in 1670.

Ended up self settling 9 cities though the start was probably the hardest part with no great sites on the island besides the capital till iw/calendar and slow building the GLh with the lack of happies. Would have been better off settling more cities to start with.

Thanks for hosting.

 

[Greeder]

Wow, very hard game. Lack of hammers and low happy cap gave me the same output as Sleepless - slow GLH and not many cities. I was lucky to get +1 move thanks to WB set on auto exploration.
But Sleepless is much better in warring. I won semiDiplo (4 vassals) in 19th century.
I was behind in techs whole game, and later even my vassals didn't want to trade with me.
Maybe, just maybe I would finish much earlier, but HC played diplo brillanlty. I was about to attack him, when he declared and bribed Julius and Brennus, my Jude buddies to stab my back.
Fortunately tactically AI sucks on water maps, so I destroyed 4 different flotillas in ports

Detailed report later, now I have to think about Vanilla game

 

[Jastrow]

I ended up finishing the game... It was played without much of a plan, and ended in a peaceful diplo around 1700. Could probably have been half a century early if I had actually bother to optimize population, or make a plan to get the right AI's friendly earlier.

 

[Mitchum]

Diplo victory: 1652

It was mostly peaceful. About mid-game, I noticed that no one liked Wang Kon. I wish I had figured it out earlier because I was trading with him left and right and even refused to stop trading with him multiple times by just about everyone. So, I had -3 to -5 diplo with everyone for my dumb trading. Luckily, I had some positive diplo with everyone as well. So, I did what I could to get everyone but Wang to like me. I ran the right civics. I gave in to all requests. I stopped trading with Wang.

When I was about to research Mass Media, I thought I better check to see who my likely competitor would be. A little late, I know. Damn, it's not Wang. So, in about 6 turns, I built/whiped an army (my warriors and archers weren't going to cut it ) and captured Seoul and one other Wang city. When it came out of revolt, I started the slow process of building the UN in a hammer-poor city. I was not the largest Civ so I settled a few more cities and went max growth everywhere (all cities were at the end). I had been cultivating a GE for a LONG time and he finally arrived. I rushed the UN and signed a Peace Treaty with Wang in which I gave him back Seoul. Wang was now the proud owner of the UN and I had the largest pop.

I had JC and Hannibal to Friendly and the rest were Pleased. These AI were tough. I had HC up to +10 and he was only Pleased. In the end, I got all votes except Wang (duh!) and Shaka (abstained). I'm glad it's over...

 

[raistlin1967]

After nearly throwing up my hands at the turn, I made a reasonable recovery. HC never sent any more troops at me but refused for the longest time to give me peace unless I gave him back my city that he managed to conquer. He was super far ahead in tech but I finaly wound up with one to sue for peace with. (Lib i think) I truly did underestimate how poorly the AI would play the watermap. Decided to shoot for UN as I slowly but surely managed to creep up to tech parity with lots of trading between JC, Han, and WK. Unfortunately, after getting the UN, I found that I needed both Brennus and WK to vote for me along with JC and Han, who I managed to get to Friendly. Shaka was best buds with HC, so I was never going to get him. Alas, WK was the goat in my game as well and I could not overcome the negatives from staying friendly with him. Did the best I could to finish the space race, but just did not have the production to be able to do it. HC wins it going away. After Han declared a late war on me (at friendly for Pete's sake!), I realized how easy it probably would have been to take a military route after all. Maybe next time.

 

[nocho]

Crawled my way to a 1903AD space win for a stellar 21021 points.

Hit WFYABTA levels way too soon and couldn't get anyone to friendly for trade. Nearly got Brennus to friendly, but at +12 and still pleased he declared on me. Anyway, had conquered Korea and most of Inca land and the Zulu cap and surroundings for a decent base to go to space. Workshopped everything and went state property obviously. Only way to get half serious hammers on this watery map. Anyway, last 100 turns or so it was mainly pressing enter and queueing space parts. A DoW by Hannibal a few turns before end didn't matter much anymore.

 

[zamint3]

Researched Astro in 905AD and started shipping troops around.

I went Wang Kon-> Caesar-> HC-> Shaka-> Hannibal-> Brennus.

I found it very hard to vassalage these guys. Shaka and Hannibal wouldn't give in until they were down to their last city, so they got eliminated. (Wish I knew more about the mechanics behind this).

I had my mind set on domination, I just wanted to see how difficult this is on a water map, and it's painful.... The logistic is so tiresome and the map going N-S did not make it any better.
(I could have chosen a conquest victory at 1508AD for 131 kp)

Spoiler :

 

[neilmeister]

Diplo victory: 1652

D'oh!

I managed 1712, but it was a hard slog. This was a very difficult Emperor game!

My GE didn't turn up (@ 80% odds), I got a scientist instead.

I almost conquered both Brennus & Hannibal, so my population was massive.

Had to slow build the UN in my only decent hammer city, on Copper & Iron island, with 3 chops and lots of longbows whipped for decent overflow.

Everything was going rather well, the whole world was buddhist except for JC, who was going to be my opponent. Except, HC overtook JC either the turn before or the turn of the first vote, so I ended up having HC as my opponent.

Went to war with JC so he would either conquer the UN city or accept it for peace, but about 10 turns into the war he re-overtook HC as having the second biggest pop. I gave him Biology for peace just to make sure nothing silly happened again, and just waited for the next vote.

 

[Htadus]

I had all intension of getting back to using the whip in this game only to find food not so abunden.

Then got ticked off by AI demands and decided to go warring instead of my mid game VC: Diplo.

Shaka was trolling next to my capital seafood with a trireme and clearly waiting to cause mayham but I had triremes in the area. So he eventually left the area. However it was too late for him since by now I wanted his blood.

Then I start making mistakes. I learned GP before completing Lib to get MT and by the time I started to correct my mistake Copec beat me to Lib by 1 turn. I completed Lib and then finished MT. Traded Nationalism and something else to Copac for Asto. Learned chem for Frigates and kicked off a trade mission in Copec's ToA city that netted nearly 5000 gold. Upgraded untis to galleons, Frigates and calvary units.

Dowed Zulu and took all his main island cities and Vassaled Shaka.
Dowed Inca for Koren request, took all his main island cities and vassaled Copec.
Dowed Korea when he stoped trading, took all main island cities and vassaled.
Got Dowed by JC, finally an AI being himself. Killed off his stack of 1 rifle, 2 Cav and 3 seige units. Loaded all the units and went after all his cities on the small landmass. he refused to Vassal. Then I dowed on the rest of the AI and proceeded to take all the main islands.

By now i wanted conquest instead of Diplo. It took forever to cap the last three AI. They all waited untill tehy had 1 city remainig to capatulate. Conquest in 1688 AD.

Oh yeah finally did some major whipping with angry faces. I suppose i got back to whipping again.

Best things I did in the game was learning/trading for calander very early. Claiming gold near Korea. Changing Civics often and going in and out of State religion to make trades.
Good things done were Oracle in city 2, GLH, Colosus and Glib in the capital. Good troop movement in the begining.
Poor things done were messing up Lib race, leaving behind highly promoted calv units all over the map after the Korea war.
Worst thing I did in this game was completing HE just before the end of the game.

Most significant thing learned was that Calv units with 2 stars and anti GP unit promotion like to kill rifles.

 

[Jouzou]

Just in time for a last-minute submission. Man, that was intense. I was neck and neck with Huayna in the space race. In the end, I won, but his ship was missing only one part. The others really couldn't keep up with us in tech.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Submitted an incomplete game as sign of respect for staff's effort.

Managed to play up to 1200's AD around early May but found no time for civving since then. Plan was conquest. Had finished Shaka and was halfway through HC at the time. My gameplay was very mediocre anyways.

Only a few days left to the Immortal GOTM also, so I might as well skip that one and move forward to the prince BOTM.

 

[justjohn]

Diplo victory in 1532AD.

Not a great date, but possibly OK due to the map, which was difficult on research (few commerce resources, and few early lux). Made several mistakes (took too long before I understood it was connected north-south instead of east-west, hence didn't manage to meet everyone before quite some time after I had alphabet, someone else got to math before me, didn't manage to get a single GE all game, played the last part of the game a bit fast, missing several optimizations etc.), but didn't have much problems all in all.

I enjoyed this game, unaltered as it was. I say, let's have more of them! Most importantly, I managed to finish before the deadline this time, which is not normal for me :/ I cannot say how mant XOTMs I have played halfway through, or even almost to the end, but missing the deadline.

-jj-

 

[neilmeister]

Diplo victory in 1532AD.

Not a great date, but possibly OK due to the map, which was difficult on research (few commerce resources, and few early lux).

-jj-

1532 on this map is amazing!!!!

 

[Deckhand]

Diplo victory in 1532AD.

Not a great date, but possibly OK due to the map, which was difficult on research ...
-jj-

1532 on this map is amazing!!!!

I agree with Neil.

1848 Diplomacy.
Managed to finish an xOTM for once. Submitted ten minutes from the deadline.
HC Declared on me at 2:20 am (3:00 am local is my deadline), finished UN at 2:35, and voted victory at 2:45.

Conquered Wang, Hannibal and Brennus with galleys.
Then complete Naval and (later) air superiority with the only oil. Capitulated Shaka and Julius. Tech to Mass Media and Build UN ... almost didn't finish in time.

edit: hmmn, it seems I had another hour and my time pressure was an illusion

 

[justjohn]

1532 on this map is amazing!!!!

I agree with Neil.

Thank you for the kind words. My game was a peaceful diplo victory, except for a very short war with Shaka. (He declared on me early, pillaged a fishing boat with a Trireme, and I had to rush and use two Triremes to take out his Trireme. But he never sent any more units, and a bit later I gave him a tech for peace.)

edit: hmmn, it seems I had another hour and my time pressure was an illusion

I've done the same thing some time ago. And it sounds like we both have problems finishing xOTMs in time.

 

[shulec]

I did finish this one a submitted a weak 1800s diplo game.

I actually gave up and quit two times. The first when I got DoW from Julius, and then several turns later when I got additionally dogpiled by Huayana and Brennus. I got back to it and saw that the AI is so stupid and they never put a threatening attack together.

This is my second warlords game and suffered from using BTS strategy. The UI killed me, having to go to diplo screens for trades.

Ironically, while I was building my armies, all of my buddies went into WFYABTA while at the sametime flying by me with techs. I was annoyed that Brennus wouldn't trade even at friendly. My first war victim, Wang Kon, had a decent tech pace so I vassalized him for tech trades... not in Warlords! No tech trades for me.

I was very humbled to think that I lost an emperor game, so I went back to it and was pleased to pull a victory out, though it was quite pathetic.

 

[neilmeister]

This is my second warlords game and suffered from using BTS strategy. The UI killed me, having to go to diplo screens for trades.

Hah! I know the feeling, BUFFY is so good that you get used to it.

Well done for finishing, this was no normal emperor map.

 

[Ronnie1]

Like C63, I submitted a retired game out of respect for the staff. I too have been quite busy and hardly playing any civ at all.

My effort was very uninspired, which was unfortunate, because the map was actually very challenging and made for a very good game.

Congrats to those that completed winning games.

 

[Mitchum]

Diplo victory in 1532AD.

Not a great date, but possibly OK due to the map, which was difficult on research (few commerce resources, and few early lux).

I have to agree with neilmeister and Deckhand on this one. Not only was research slow but there were very few hammers to be had as well. IIRC, even though I had a GE to help with the UN, I still spent 15+ turns finishing it off after the GE rushed it. With no GE and having to build the UN manually, you must have finished Mass Media 100s of years before me... Nice game!!

Funny, there are some xOTMs where 0 or 1 player goes for a diplo victory and we have five already this game.