LowtherCastle
Deity
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
- Messages
- 23,750
No doubt. I had no intention of implying anything about your game, only some of my games. Sorry for the miscommunication.
WOTM16 Final Spoiler
- Thread starter Thrallia
- Start date
Harbourboy
Deity
Wow. Plenty of carnage in this game. Good on you, Balbes, for submitting your loss. I'm in good company this month.
The-Hawk
Old Original Geezer
The Fantasy Realm map drew me in on this one. All the Civ I've played, never tried this map type. I have to admit, it was hard to adjust to the bizzare resource combinations 
. As a result, I never got into the swing... I had a ho-hum sort of pace, finished Conquest in 1721. It was an interesting map type to try once, don't expect I'll ever play it again.
. As a result, I never got into the swing... I had a ho-hum sort of pace, finished Conquest in 1721. It was an interesting map type to try once, don't expect I'll ever play it again.RobertTheBruce
King
The fantasy map had a very friendly set of resources which let me tech pretty rapidly. I settled on the stone and built the Great Wall early. A few barbarians suicided on my cordon of forest, hill warriors but I didn't have any serious barb problems. I faced a lot of CG3 longbows in Greece and Korea so I know the AIs were busy with barbarians.
I followed a pretty conventional path to a diplomatic victory. The gem mines let me tech quickly. I crashed my economy by rexing in the BCs but ran 100% research throughout most of the ADs. I went a bit wonder crazy with the GW, Pyramids, Oracle (Metal Casting), Hanging Gardens (to accelerate courthouse whips
), and the Great Library. My allies Cyrus, Ramesses, and Mao kept either giving me gold or trading large amounts of gold for techs as I raced up the tech tree. They were all Hindu and I adopted Hinduism when it spread to me.
Hinduism spread late so I switched to Pacifism at about 600AD and in general didn't manage great people very well. I captured a Greek city with 4 food resources for my gp farm without calculating the actual food. I chopped the Great Library and discovered tundra hill rice and wheat aren't good food resources. I didn't have enough food anywhere to use Caste System so the Pyramids for Representation was a bit of a waste. 2 Engineers from the Wall built the Pyramids and UN. I built the Great Library but still only produced 3 Scientists. (+ a 4th from Physics) They lightbulbed Physics and Electricity. An artist arrived after Mass Media was completed and lightbulbed Nationalism. I got Radio from Liberalism.
I stole a worker from Mansa and attacked his allies Alex and Wang Kon so he hated me most of the game. We ended the game at war when he vassalized Korea. Mansa was the second largest civ so it was a very conventional diplomatic victory. I built the UN, kept it, and won with the 3rd, 4th and 5th largest civs as allies on the first vote in 1352AD.
I followed a pretty conventional path to a diplomatic victory. The gem mines let me tech quickly. I crashed my economy by rexing in the BCs but ran 100% research throughout most of the ADs. I went a bit wonder crazy with the GW, Pyramids, Oracle (Metal Casting), Hanging Gardens (to accelerate courthouse whips
), and the Great Library. My allies Cyrus, Ramesses, and Mao kept either giving me gold or trading large amounts of gold for techs as I raced up the tech tree. They were all Hindu and I adopted Hinduism when it spread to me.Hinduism spread late so I switched to Pacifism at about 600AD and in general didn't manage great people very well. I captured a Greek city with 4 food resources for my gp farm without calculating the actual food. I chopped the Great Library and discovered tundra hill rice and wheat aren't good food resources. I didn't have enough food anywhere to use Caste System so the Pyramids for Representation was a bit of a waste. 2 Engineers from the Wall built the Pyramids and UN. I built the Great Library but still only produced 3 Scientists. (+ a 4th from Physics) They lightbulbed Physics and Electricity. An artist arrived after Mass Media was completed and lightbulbed Nationalism. I got Radio from Liberalism.
I stole a worker from Mansa and attacked his allies Alex and Wang Kon so he hated me most of the game. We ended the game at war when he vassalized Korea. Mansa was the second largest civ so it was a very conventional diplomatic victory. I built the UN, kept it, and won with the 3rd, 4th and 5th largest civs as allies on the first vote in 1352AD.
Harbourboy
Deity
The resources were awesome, but it still didn't stop many of us from being eaten up and spat out by the barbarians and other enemies.
Kennigit
proud 2 boxer
Short story: I got pwnt (probably).
I was very happy with this game. I started out by moving to the stone, but quickly saw that I thought the land was easily fogbustable. Who said anything about some big wall anyway? So I got archery after fogbusting with warriors, where I covered a full 340 degrees. Units started to pour out of the little patch to the north I wasn't watching, and I got entangled in a thousand years of guerilla warfare and slaving my people.
Each time I thought that it would be the last barbarian, only to have another 3 pop near Carthage. I fought them off in what I thought was strong tactics....then I finally decided to research animal husbandry and saw there was a billion horses everywhere. A couple chariots fixed everything, and I had the tech lead (momentarily). I went for the pyramids, and just 2 turns before I got it, Mansa beat me to them. I stopped playing there, haven't had time to play since, and won't submit the game (don't know where my disc is). I don't know how the game would have turned out- there are plenty of resources to boost research, but I was gearing up for specialists. Very fun game, if not just to have some fun with some early unit maneuvering.
I was very happy with this game. I started out by moving to the stone, but quickly saw that I thought the land was easily fogbustable. Who said anything about some big wall anyway? So I got archery after fogbusting with warriors, where I covered a full 340 degrees. Units started to pour out of the little patch to the north I wasn't watching, and I got entangled in a thousand years of guerilla warfare and slaving my people.
Each time I thought that it would be the last barbarian, only to have another 3 pop near Carthage. I fought them off in what I thought was strong tactics....then I finally decided to research animal husbandry and saw there was a billion horses everywhere. A couple chariots fixed everything, and I had the tech lead (momentarily). I went for the pyramids, and just 2 turns before I got it, Mansa beat me to them. I stopped playing there, haven't had time to play since, and won't submit the game (don't know where my disc is). I don't know how the game would have turned out- there are plenty of resources to boost research, but I was gearing up for specialists. Very fun game, if not just to have some fun with some early unit maneuvering.
Htadus
A and L's dad
I am so glad it is over. Went for diplo game and realized very early on I was screwed but I hung on, vasellized Mao and Alex, and got my self a good tech lead. But from then on all went wrong. Wong who liked me more kept on voting for Mansa and Cyris kept on abstaining. So I retired but would have lost to a space launch and RL time limit forced me not take the late military route. oh well on to the next game.
Munro
Deity
Started this a while ago but just ran out of time to complete.
I was aiming for a conquest victory (challenger save) and was comfortably ahead at 620AD with 17 cities, and 4 of the 7 AI destroyed or crippled; 3 to go.
The toroidal map made for some interesting military strategy, once my borders started getting large enough for this to have an impact. Many different directions to travel in, attack from, and defend against.
Shame I couldn't finish it (even with 6 weeks to play). Still, it was fun. Thanks Thrallia for the map!
Some screenshots:
I was aiming for a conquest victory (challenger save) and was comfortably ahead at 620AD with 17 cities, and 4 of the 7 AI destroyed or crippled; 3 to go.
The toroidal map made for some interesting military strategy, once my borders started getting large enough for this to have an impact. Many different directions to travel in, attack from, and defend against.
Shame I couldn't finish it (even with 6 weeks to play). Still, it was fun. Thanks Thrallia for the map!
Some screenshots:
I'm too out of time at a win position with 35% land and advancing in 2 directions throw MZ and the Ottomans. MM is became my vassal on its own, i've allredy kill Alex and WK. Ramzes is very week and Cyrus will not be problem too. I have a big tech lead (will get Cav in ~ 15-20 turns) while all the other still miss CS. It is around 800 AD. But i cat finish it today 
Gosha190
King
I think it would be a good idea to accept final saves until stuff will make actual deadline.
hellwitch
your game progress is close to mine and it will be intetesting to see your final date.
hellwitch
your game progress is close to mine and it will be intetesting to see your final date.
Munro
Deity
Yeah, without any ocean, it made for a huge map. Conquest / domination was a major undertaking!
@Gosha - your 365AD domination win is very impressive. Did you keep any of your old autosaves? I'd be really interested to see some of your earlier BC saves to compare. Your approach was quite different to mine.
I tech'd as far as construction / cats, then turned the slider to 0% science and warred continuously (roughly breaking even at 0% science, and getting techs by sueing for peace once each AI was down to their last city or two).
Looks like you had a much longer building phase at the beginning (3 wonders and substantially more techs) which obviously worked out much quicker.
I think the barbs probably slowed me down considerably as well, especially after I started conquering and the length of border that needed to be kept secure grew rapidly. I certainly regretted not building the GW.
@Gosha - your 365AD domination win is very impressive. Did you keep any of your old autosaves? I'd be really interested to see some of your earlier BC saves to compare. Your approach was quite different to mine.
I tech'd as far as construction / cats, then turned the slider to 0% science and warred continuously (roughly breaking even at 0% science, and getting techs by sueing for peace once each AI was down to their last city or two).
Looks like you had a much longer building phase at the beginning (3 wonders and substantially more techs) which obviously worked out much quicker.
I think the barbs probably slowed me down considerably as well, especially after I started conquering and the length of border that needed to be kept secure grew rapidly. I certainly regretted not building the GW.
LowtherCastle
Deity
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
- Messages
- 23,750
Contender, conquest, 1430ad.
Well, Gosha190 and toller pretzl played this far better than I. I simply forgot about worker stealing (been a while since that was relevant) and Gosha190 was smart to focus on the gems for research. I put too much focus on military early on, in particular securing the copper up by MM. I didn't even go for the ORacle at all. Kept reseaching all the way to guilds.
I didn't start warring until 5ad, took out MM first with swords and cats, then methodically took out others with maces, WEs and eventually knights. Vassalized them till game end. Nothing special to report.
Well, Gosha190 and toller pretzl played this far better than I. I simply forgot about worker stealing (been a while since that was relevant) and Gosha190 was smart to focus on the gems for research. I put too much focus on military early on, in particular securing the copper up by MM. I didn't even go for the ORacle at all. Kept reseaching all the way to guilds.
I didn't start warring until 5ad, took out MM first with swords and cats, then methodically took out others with maces, WEs and eventually knights. Vassalized them till game end. Nothing special to report.
chunkymonkey
Procrastinator
I figured I would get massacred without the Great Wall in this game, so that would be my opening gambit. Settled on the stone and built a couple of warriors whilst researching Masonry, to go out worker hunting.
Found Alex first and nicked his worker. Whilst building the Great Wall I whipped a settler and cautiously sent him north with a single escort. I almost lost him to wandering barbs, and almost Utica soon afterwards - but luck was with me. The Great wall was soon finished, and I set about upon my peaceful expansion whilst the others were tormented by the barbs.
Around 1100BC, my warriors had been busy and had located all the other civs. I simultaneously declared on Cyrus, Alex, and Mehmed who each gave me a worker. I knew any chance of diplomacy would be screwed by this point, but since I figured it would take so long to establish meaningful trade routes and the other guys would tech slowly diplomacy wouldn't be necessary. The fun part was escorting my 3 new slaves home. I ended up sacrificing a couple of warriors along the way back from Persia to ensure that the workers could return to Cathage safely.
My first real war was in 895BC-745BC against Korea who had a couple of tasty cities I wanted. I captured both of them fairly easily with a handful of axes. In this time I also built Stonehenge and Hinduism spread around.
I get a Great Engineer in 595BC thanks to the Wall, and I rush the Pyramids in Carthage. I also build the Gardens and the Engineer points are soon piling in. I soon learn Construction and HBR and the spamming of cats and horses commences.
My second war against Korea (370BC-5AD), aided by cats and cavalry, nets me a couple of cities, my first GG who becomes a Medic, and I get my first vassal.
The Carhage-Greek war (5AD-170) sees a paralysed Alex capitulate after horsies run amok across his undeveloped lands.
The Ottomans were next (170-335) and they didn't have a chance as trebs entered the war arena. This war also saw the construction of the Heroic epic in Carthage, the Great Library in Utica and the emergence of my second GG - also medic)
I started wars against Cyrus (335-590) and Ramesses (380-740), but never really gave them my full attention, since they were small foes and I had a bigger problem. I needed to start on Mao (410-725) earlier than I had originally planned since he'd learnt Feudalism and I wanted to blitz him before he could build too many longbows. I got my third general in this war, who also became a medic (maybe I should have made him an instructor?). Trebs worked very well against his longbow cities, and soon Level 3 knights were headed out of the mainland to clean up. Mao capitulated much later than I had expected.
Mansa looked up from his gold just in time to see the knights pour across his border from all directions. He had some nicely developed lands but Mansa could only put up with 6 turns of war before he capitulated in 740AD.
Hannibal had completed his vassal collection.
Fun quick game... I think I might be sloooowly moving over to the dark side of warmongering after 15 years as a builder
...
Found Alex first and nicked his worker. Whilst building the Great Wall I whipped a settler and cautiously sent him north with a single escort. I almost lost him to wandering barbs, and almost Utica soon afterwards - but luck was with me. The Great wall was soon finished, and I set about upon my peaceful expansion whilst the others were tormented by the barbs.
Around 1100BC, my warriors had been busy and had located all the other civs. I simultaneously declared on Cyrus, Alex, and Mehmed who each gave me a worker. I knew any chance of diplomacy would be screwed by this point, but since I figured it would take so long to establish meaningful trade routes and the other guys would tech slowly diplomacy wouldn't be necessary. The fun part was escorting my 3 new slaves home. I ended up sacrificing a couple of warriors along the way back from Persia to ensure that the workers could return to Cathage safely.
My first real war was in 895BC-745BC against Korea who had a couple of tasty cities I wanted. I captured both of them fairly easily with a handful of axes. In this time I also built Stonehenge and Hinduism spread around.
I get a Great Engineer in 595BC thanks to the Wall, and I rush the Pyramids in Carthage. I also build the Gardens and the Engineer points are soon piling in. I soon learn Construction and HBR and the spamming of cats and horses commences.
My second war against Korea (370BC-5AD), aided by cats and cavalry, nets me a couple of cities, my first GG who becomes a Medic, and I get my first vassal.
The Carhage-Greek war (5AD-170) sees a paralysed Alex capitulate after horsies run amok across his undeveloped lands.
The Ottomans were next (170-335) and they didn't have a chance as trebs entered the war arena. This war also saw the construction of the Heroic epic in Carthage, the Great Library in Utica and the emergence of my second GG - also medic)
I started wars against Cyrus (335-590) and Ramesses (380-740), but never really gave them my full attention, since they were small foes and I had a bigger problem. I needed to start on Mao (410-725) earlier than I had originally planned since he'd learnt Feudalism and I wanted to blitz him before he could build too many longbows. I got my third general in this war, who also became a medic (maybe I should have made him an instructor?). Trebs worked very well against his longbow cities, and soon Level 3 knights were headed out of the mainland to clean up. Mao capitulated much later than I had expected.
Mansa looked up from his gold just in time to see the knights pour across his border from all directions. He had some nicely developed lands but Mansa could only put up with 6 turns of war before he capitulated in 740AD.
Hannibal had completed his vassal collection.
Fun quick game... I think I might be sloooowly moving over to the dark side of warmongering after 15 years as a builder
...
Gosha190
King
Did you keep any of your old autosaves?
I tech'd as far as construction / cats, then turned the slider to 0% science and warred continuously (roughly breaking even at 0% science, and getting techs by sueing for peace once each AI was down to their last city or two).
Looks like you had a much longer building phase at the beginning (3 wonders and substantially more techs) which obviously worked out much quicker.
I think the barbs probably slowed me down considerably as well, especially after I started conquering and the length of border that needed to be kept secure grew rapidly. I certainly regretted not building the GW.
oops... I'v started new game and lost all autosaves. I have no enough skill at emperor domination at standard map. Because of that I played very careful and expanded slowly. I built courthouses in all my native cities and did so in all cities of first wave expansion. Additional to gems mine I built few cottages. This way let me to be in plus with GPT up to the game end. Now I do not remember exactly all I do because BPTM03 was played after WOTM16
Finally, I think that my domination is more milking game than game for speed.Before I got CS I built few Axemans and promoted them. After I researched CS I set my research to zero for few turns and got gold to promote axes to maces. It helped me to accelerate first war with WK.
Early HangG helped me a lot to increase production in my little cities and increased GE points.
Dhoomstriker
Girlie Builder
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2006
- Messages
- 13,474
Entry class: Challenger
Game status: Conquest Victory for Carthage
Game date: 1670AD
Base score: 5736
Final score: 129530
I settled in place, after my Warrior spotted the Marble. I was thoroughly delighted to see all of the extra Resources appearing out of the fog! Nice one, Thrallia!
I researched:
Mining (for Bronze Working) ->
Bronze Working (early chopping and whipping) ->
Agriculture (I had a couple of Corn available, now that I could chop Forests on Corn!) ->
The Wheel (I wanted Axemen) ->
Hunting (in case I didn't get Axemen in time, I was going for Archery) ->
Mysticism (to help with Masonry and in case I wanted to pop cultural borders) ->
Masonry (The Great Wall could FINALLY be built) ->
Pottery (gotta love those Granaries!) ->
Animal Husbandry (wow, so many Horse Resources!) ->
Writing (Libraries) ->
Horseback Riding (Numidian Cavalry) ->
Alphabet (it was about time to trade for... umm... Iron Working and Archery... I guess I didn't get a lot in trade because the world hated me at this point, but I was able to extort techs for peace later on)
I managed to meet most of the AI early on--only Ramesses remained a mystery opponent for any length of time.
I figured that with their lower strength, Numidian Cavalry would need to come out relatively early. If other AI got to Horsemen, then my units would be in trouble or would have to move slowly with Spearmen escorts.
Around 2380 BC (Turn 54), I was literally being swarmed by Barb Warriors. Pumping out Warriors while choosing which Resources to protect and which to allow to be pillaged was about all that I could do.
I built a Settler around this time, but I ended up having to hide him for about 10 extra turns--that or risk losing him to the Barbs.
By 2080 BC (Turn 64), I was fighting 3 Barbs every 2 turns. I had to keep a lot of Warriors close to home, just to be able to heal them in time, but a couple of fog-busters allowed me to keep pillagers away from the Copper. So, on this turn, I began building my first Axeman (7 turns to go, ohhhh, come on, come on!)
In 1900 BC (Turn 70), my second city was under grave threat. My second city had been placed to the SE + E of the Plains Hills Forest Stone square 2 turns prior. The Warrior defending the city still only had a 10% Fortification Bonus. Five Barb Warriors were within three squares of attacking that city.
It took some creative movement of my Workers and Warriors, but I managed to survive one more turn of onslaught. After that point, I was finally able to move my only Axeman down the road from my capital into my second city, while another Axeman was almost complete in my capital (thank you, Slavery). After that point, the Barb Warriors were still a pain, but I wasn't going to die from them.
Throughout the first few thousand years, I declared war on a lot of the AI. I went nuts, actually. Some sort of recessed memory of Erkon chanting "Kill 'em all! Kill 'em all!" had me declaring war just to steal Workers. Sometimes, I declared just for the fun of it, watching the Workers scurry for cover as I waltzed through their lands. Anyway, thanks to the Barbs, although a lot of Workers made it close to home and even improved a few squares for a few turns, I ended up, in balance, losing all of the early Workers that I stole, to the Barbs. At one point, one square outside of my cultural borders, one of my Workers was surrounded by 4 Barb Warriors. The Barbs had covered all of the exits, such that even my Worker's 2 movement points couldn't save him!
Still, the damage had been done, so a lot of the AIs were slowed down. However, I was harmed later on by the fact that trading for Techs and often even for Open Borders was next to impossible. I suppose it wasn't unbelievable that most of the AIs were unwilling to trust a war-mongering barbarian of a leader!
By 1450 BC (Turn 85), I was fighting Barb Archers and some Barb Warriors, left, right, and centre. Barb cities were surrounding me, but worst of all, the AIs were trying to capture these cities (Cyrus managed to grab one, while I met Ramesses as he tried and failed to grab the other one). I was still researching Mysticism, so I wasn't even able to start on The Great Wall yet. Oh well, 5 Axemen, 4 Warriors, and 3 Workers seemed to be enough to keep me going!
In 850 BC (Turn 110), I picked up The Great Wall. The pace of the game went from an intense challenge to a more modest level of challenge--I could finally throw enough of my forces into seriously hampering the AI.
As of 265 BC (Turn 149), Cyrus had been fighting me an incredibly tense game of cat and mouse for that one Barb city of his. He kept piling in the defenders and no matter where I moved, he wouldn't budge. I couldn't dare leave the area with my army until I'd dealt with the threat. Fortunately, I was able to move my forces convincingly far enough away from his city and from my nearby second city that he came to take my second city. The battles were hot and heavy, with my Chariots, Axemen, and lone Numidian Cavalry going up against his stacks of Axemen, Chariots, Spearmen, and Archers.
By 205 BC (Turn 153), I had destroyed 8 of his units and had taken the city. I was tempted to raise the city and rebuild it a square or two away, but I kept the city as a tribute to my brave warriors who sacrificed their lives for its capture.
At this point, I had enough of a veteran army to take the wars to the AIs, and so I did. Mehmed lost a few cities as I went for Cyrus' jugular.
Playing on Emperor, though, had me face reality--I couldn't keep many of the cities that I captured and eventually, other AI would fill in the gaps with cities of their own.
One point that helped a lot was that Ramesses was so focused on Wonder-hogging that he forgot to build city defenders. Two turns after building Stonehenge, the Barbs captured his city! What luck! In watching the replay, it was obvious as to the effect--over time, about 10 Barb cities had received cultural expansions from Stonehenge! Eventually, the AI raised or captured all of the Barb cities, but the delay allowed my slow progression of war to sweep across the lands.
I built The Pyramids in 230 AD (Turn 182) using a Great Engineer obtained from The Great Wall. I also managed to build The Great Library, but it came quite late in the game. Other than those Wonders, I built a few more Wonders for denial-purposes, but none that were really note-worthy.
It wasn't until I researched Feudalism in 770 AD (Turn 218), that things really got going, however. I was still fighting with Numidian Cavalry against Archers, wherever possible, although most of the AI had Longbowmen. Once I started vassalling allies, however, it was just a matter of carefully selecting my opponents, using sufficient force, and raising enough cities that my economy wouldn't completely crash.
It took me forever at the end, since I'd vassalled everyone but Mao and Wang Kong. Vassalling either of them would have put me over the Domination Land Area limit--not to mention the fact that neither of them would go quietly.
Mao had impressed me this game--I'd been fearful of Wang Kong's early Longbowmen with City Garrison 3 promotions (the Barbarians weren't always helpful)--but Mao wasn't afraid. On three separate occasions, Mao declared war on Wang Kong, each time without my prompting. Mao slowly carved out pieces of the Land Area Leader (Wang Kong) and thus made my job easy enough when the time came.
It took me three wars to take on Mao--first with Numidian Cavalry that weren't being very effective, then with Knights, and finally with Cavalry. Those AI with the Protective Trait really are tough nuts to crack!
When it came down to the end, Mao vassalled himself to Wang Kong, having been too proud to become my vassal. I allowed Mao to end the game with dignity and I relieved him of his last city on the last turn of the game, while simultaneously taking 10 of Wang Kong's cities and forcing Wang Kong to become my vassal with just a tiny shanty of a town to his name. Mao Zedong, your name will be remembered in history as the second greatest conqueror of this game! Your tactics and strategies will be studied by strong Carthaginian Leaders throughout time!
Thanks to the staff for a really great game! Thanks to everyone else who participated--win or loss--let's keep the blood-thirsty Warlord alive and thriving!
Oh, and I'm glad that we played a Fantasy Realm map using Warlords. I could actually decipher the confusing yields on squares thanks to the alt text included in Warlords--the text that appears when you hover your mouse over a square and its corresponding Resource. In Civ 4 Vanilla, you'd have had to refer to the Civilopedia far too often to figure out whether or not a square was useful. There was quite a large proportion of barely-useful Tundra Wheat squares that I ended up ignoring in city placement.
Korea seems to thrive on this kind of a map--I recall that they were out-teching all of the AI in the last Fantasy Realm map that we played and that situation was the same this time around, too.
Game status: Conquest Victory for Carthage
Game date: 1670AD
Base score: 5736
Final score: 129530
I settled in place, after my Warrior spotted the Marble. I was thoroughly delighted to see all of the extra Resources appearing out of the fog! Nice one, Thrallia!
I researched:
Mining (for Bronze Working) ->
Bronze Working (early chopping and whipping) ->
Agriculture (I had a couple of Corn available, now that I could chop Forests on Corn!) ->
The Wheel (I wanted Axemen) ->
Hunting (in case I didn't get Axemen in time, I was going for Archery) ->
Mysticism (to help with Masonry and in case I wanted to pop cultural borders) ->
Masonry (The Great Wall could FINALLY be built) ->
Pottery (gotta love those Granaries!) ->
Animal Husbandry (wow, so many Horse Resources!) ->
Writing (Libraries) ->
Horseback Riding (Numidian Cavalry) ->
Alphabet (it was about time to trade for... umm... Iron Working and Archery... I guess I didn't get a lot in trade because the world hated me at this point, but I was able to extort techs for peace later on)
I managed to meet most of the AI early on--only Ramesses remained a mystery opponent for any length of time.
I figured that with their lower strength, Numidian Cavalry would need to come out relatively early. If other AI got to Horsemen, then my units would be in trouble or would have to move slowly with Spearmen escorts.
Around 2380 BC (Turn 54), I was literally being swarmed by Barb Warriors. Pumping out Warriors while choosing which Resources to protect and which to allow to be pillaged was about all that I could do.
I built a Settler around this time, but I ended up having to hide him for about 10 extra turns--that or risk losing him to the Barbs.
By 2080 BC (Turn 64), I was fighting 3 Barbs every 2 turns. I had to keep a lot of Warriors close to home, just to be able to heal them in time, but a couple of fog-busters allowed me to keep pillagers away from the Copper. So, on this turn, I began building my first Axeman (7 turns to go, ohhhh, come on, come on!)
In 1900 BC (Turn 70), my second city was under grave threat. My second city had been placed to the SE + E of the Plains Hills Forest Stone square 2 turns prior. The Warrior defending the city still only had a 10% Fortification Bonus. Five Barb Warriors were within three squares of attacking that city.
It took some creative movement of my Workers and Warriors, but I managed to survive one more turn of onslaught. After that point, I was finally able to move my only Axeman down the road from my capital into my second city, while another Axeman was almost complete in my capital (thank you, Slavery). After that point, the Barb Warriors were still a pain, but I wasn't going to die from them.
Throughout the first few thousand years, I declared war on a lot of the AI. I went nuts, actually. Some sort of recessed memory of Erkon chanting "Kill 'em all! Kill 'em all!" had me declaring war just to steal Workers. Sometimes, I declared just for the fun of it, watching the Workers scurry for cover as I waltzed through their lands. Anyway, thanks to the Barbs, although a lot of Workers made it close to home and even improved a few squares for a few turns, I ended up, in balance, losing all of the early Workers that I stole, to the Barbs. At one point, one square outside of my cultural borders, one of my Workers was surrounded by 4 Barb Warriors. The Barbs had covered all of the exits, such that even my Worker's 2 movement points couldn't save him!
Still, the damage had been done, so a lot of the AIs were slowed down. However, I was harmed later on by the fact that trading for Techs and often even for Open Borders was next to impossible. I suppose it wasn't unbelievable that most of the AIs were unwilling to trust a war-mongering barbarian of a leader!
By 1450 BC (Turn 85), I was fighting Barb Archers and some Barb Warriors, left, right, and centre. Barb cities were surrounding me, but worst of all, the AIs were trying to capture these cities (Cyrus managed to grab one, while I met Ramesses as he tried and failed to grab the other one). I was still researching Mysticism, so I wasn't even able to start on The Great Wall yet. Oh well, 5 Axemen, 4 Warriors, and 3 Workers seemed to be enough to keep me going!
In 850 BC (Turn 110), I picked up The Great Wall. The pace of the game went from an intense challenge to a more modest level of challenge--I could finally throw enough of my forces into seriously hampering the AI.
As of 265 BC (Turn 149), Cyrus had been fighting me an incredibly tense game of cat and mouse for that one Barb city of his. He kept piling in the defenders and no matter where I moved, he wouldn't budge. I couldn't dare leave the area with my army until I'd dealt with the threat. Fortunately, I was able to move my forces convincingly far enough away from his city and from my nearby second city that he came to take my second city. The battles were hot and heavy, with my Chariots, Axemen, and lone Numidian Cavalry going up against his stacks of Axemen, Chariots, Spearmen, and Archers.
By 205 BC (Turn 153), I had destroyed 8 of his units and had taken the city. I was tempted to raise the city and rebuild it a square or two away, but I kept the city as a tribute to my brave warriors who sacrificed their lives for its capture.
At this point, I had enough of a veteran army to take the wars to the AIs, and so I did. Mehmed lost a few cities as I went for Cyrus' jugular.
Playing on Emperor, though, had me face reality--I couldn't keep many of the cities that I captured and eventually, other AI would fill in the gaps with cities of their own.
One point that helped a lot was that Ramesses was so focused on Wonder-hogging that he forgot to build city defenders. Two turns after building Stonehenge, the Barbs captured his city! What luck! In watching the replay, it was obvious as to the effect--over time, about 10 Barb cities had received cultural expansions from Stonehenge! Eventually, the AI raised or captured all of the Barb cities, but the delay allowed my slow progression of war to sweep across the lands.
I built The Pyramids in 230 AD (Turn 182) using a Great Engineer obtained from The Great Wall. I also managed to build The Great Library, but it came quite late in the game. Other than those Wonders, I built a few more Wonders for denial-purposes, but none that were really note-worthy.
It wasn't until I researched Feudalism in 770 AD (Turn 218), that things really got going, however. I was still fighting with Numidian Cavalry against Archers, wherever possible, although most of the AI had Longbowmen. Once I started vassalling allies, however, it was just a matter of carefully selecting my opponents, using sufficient force, and raising enough cities that my economy wouldn't completely crash.
It took me forever at the end, since I'd vassalled everyone but Mao and Wang Kong. Vassalling either of them would have put me over the Domination Land Area limit--not to mention the fact that neither of them would go quietly.
Mao had impressed me this game--I'd been fearful of Wang Kong's early Longbowmen with City Garrison 3 promotions (the Barbarians weren't always helpful)--but Mao wasn't afraid. On three separate occasions, Mao declared war on Wang Kong, each time without my prompting. Mao slowly carved out pieces of the Land Area Leader (Wang Kong) and thus made my job easy enough when the time came.
It took me three wars to take on Mao--first with Numidian Cavalry that weren't being very effective, then with Knights, and finally with Cavalry. Those AI with the Protective Trait really are tough nuts to crack!
When it came down to the end, Mao vassalled himself to Wang Kong, having been too proud to become my vassal. I allowed Mao to end the game with dignity and I relieved him of his last city on the last turn of the game, while simultaneously taking 10 of Wang Kong's cities and forcing Wang Kong to become my vassal with just a tiny shanty of a town to his name. Mao Zedong, your name will be remembered in history as the second greatest conqueror of this game! Your tactics and strategies will be studied by strong Carthaginian Leaders throughout time!
Thanks to the staff for a really great game! Thanks to everyone else who participated--win or loss--let's keep the blood-thirsty Warlord alive and thriving!
Oh, and I'm glad that we played a Fantasy Realm map using Warlords. I could actually decipher the confusing yields on squares thanks to the alt text included in Warlords--the text that appears when you hover your mouse over a square and its corresponding Resource. In Civ 4 Vanilla, you'd have had to refer to the Civilopedia far too often to figure out whether or not a square was useful. There was quite a large proportion of barely-useful Tundra Wheat squares that I ended up ignoring in city placement.
Korea seems to thrive on this kind of a map--I recall that they were out-teching all of the AI in the last Fantasy Realm map that we played and that situation was the same this time around, too.
What makes me continue playing civ? What drives me to continue this humiliating experience? I don't know. Perhaps the hope that one day, the supply of freekin' Russians dry up?! That they actually are humans, with human flaws and short comings? That one day, when they mastered this game fully, they decide to move on to something even more challenging, and leave us mediocre losers alone in our struggle? Is that wishful thinking?
A long time ago, I felt I had mastered the art of combat in Warlords. I was feeling smug, thinking that I needed someone standing next to me and whispering in my ear: "Remember that you are mortal". Well, my wishes came true. Lexad spanked me hard and beat my games with god-knows-how-many turns
Instead of giving up, I tried to learn from him and improve. And I did improve. Again I felt good. Until the next time I was spanked hard, this time by Balbes. And I mean spanked really hard. God knows how many turns ahead he was (I still remember every detail of the map). Ok, I still have a few details to iron out. So, again I studied the post game event log on this site. And I improved yet a level, feeling smug. And I played really well. SMACK! Obormot outperformed me and spanked me harder than ever (BOTM1) This time I was really upset. I felt like I didn't even master the basics of this game? WTH?? But again, I took a look at the event log, and this time, this game, this WOTM, this was the final test! This time I was going for the Epthatlete, racing Lexad. And I played well. Really well. Can't imagine anyone playing better than me, and I was already drafting my speech to the mortals. SMACK!!! I was spanked by 1000 years. Onethousandfreekinyears!!!!! Curse you, Gosha, curse you! Not only did you rob me of my award, but the humiliating, rub-it-in, complete trashing of my game is ... is ... I don't know. Pulverizing my self esteem? Nuking my ego? You're driving me crazy! How, by the nine hells and seven heavens, did you manage to beat me with such overwhelming clarity? Do you really think that I can rise again? And if I do, is there a guarantee that there won't pop up a fifth super-Russian? I don't know if I can take it. I don't know if I dare to expose my battered soul again.
I will soon post my miserable spoiler. There you can see that I started my war campaign after Gosha won his victory. Ohmygod...
(Ok, just in case it is not evident: I admire Lexad, Balbes, Obormot and Gosha. I've tried to learn from them. I'm happy they have showed my how to play this game. I have absolutely nothing against them, and I prefer they continue playing very well so that I can improve. Perhaps letting me win once, please?)
BTW, I'm really impressed by your game, Gosha!
EDIT: Sorry for not keeping track of nationalities, will update post if anyone feels offended
A long time ago, I felt I had mastered the art of combat in Warlords. I was feeling smug, thinking that I needed someone standing next to me and whispering in my ear: "Remember that you are mortal". Well, my wishes came true. Lexad spanked me hard and beat my games with god-knows-how-many turns
Instead of giving up, I tried to learn from him and improve. And I did improve. Again I felt good. Until the next time I was spanked hard, this time by Balbes. And I mean spanked really hard. God knows how many turns ahead he was (I still remember every detail of the map). Ok, I still have a few details to iron out. So, again I studied the post game event log on this site. And I improved yet a level, feeling smug. And I played really well. SMACK! Obormot outperformed me and spanked me harder than ever (BOTM1) This time I was really upset. I felt like I didn't even master the basics of this game? WTH?? But again, I took a look at the event log, and this time, this game, this WOTM, this was the final test! This time I was going for the Epthatlete, racing Lexad. And I played well. Really well. Can't imagine anyone playing better than me, and I was already drafting my speech to the mortals. SMACK!!! I was spanked by 1000 years. Onethousandfreekinyears!!!!! Curse you, Gosha, curse you! Not only did you rob me of my award, but the humiliating, rub-it-in, complete trashing of my game is ... is ... I don't know. Pulverizing my self esteem? Nuking my ego? You're driving me crazy! How, by the nine hells and seven heavens, did you manage to beat me with such overwhelming clarity? Do you really think that I can rise again? And if I do, is there a guarantee that there won't pop up a fifth super-Russian? I don't know if I can take it. I don't know if I dare to expose my battered soul again.I will soon post my miserable spoiler. There you can see that I started my war campaign after Gosha won his victory. Ohmygod...
(Ok, just in case it is not evident: I admire Lexad, Balbes, Obormot and Gosha. I've tried to learn from them. I'm happy they have showed my how to play this game. I have absolutely nothing against them, and I prefer they continue playing very well so that I can improve. Perhaps letting me win once, please?)
BTW, I'm really impressed by your game, Gosha!
EDIT: Sorry for not keeping track of nationalities, will update post if anyone feels offended
Settled in place, and founded second city on stone hill.
Build queue up to 1000 BC:
Worker, Warrior, Settler, Archer, Archer, Archer, Archer, Worker, Archer, Archer, Archer
1540 BC The Great Wall
The barbs were swarming my lands just before the GW, and it was difficult to chop. It is quite remarkable how important the GW was in this game, and I completed it much too late.
Research up to 1000 BC: BW, hunting, archery, masonry, wheel, agri, pottery, writing
I purposely delayed my attack until I had Feudalism to enable vassal states / capitulation. As you can see in the log below, I attacked the Greek in 500 AD, and the Chinese in 800 AD. I wanted to open up a second front as far away as possible from my capital to speed up the war. That was not clever at all. I should have spread uniformly from my capital.
The war continued with Mehmed (1112 AD - 1190 AD), Cyrus (1202 AD - 1250 AD), Ramesses (1268 AD - 1298 AD), Wang Kon (1304 AD - 1340 AD)
Event log:
Build queue up to 1000 BC:
Worker, Warrior, Settler, Archer, Archer, Archer, Archer, Worker, Archer, Archer, Archer
1540 BC The Great Wall
The barbs were swarming my lands just before the GW, and it was difficult to chop. It is quite remarkable how important the GW was in this game, and I completed it much too late.
Research up to 1000 BC: BW, hunting, archery, masonry, wheel, agri, pottery, writing
I purposely delayed my attack until I had Feudalism to enable vassal states / capitulation. As you can see in the log below, I attacked the Greek in 500 AD, and the Chinese in 800 AD. I wanted to open up a second front as far away as possible from my capital to speed up the war. That was not clever at all. I should have spread uniformly from my capital.
The war continued with Mehmed (1112 AD - 1190 AD), Cyrus (1202 AD - 1250 AD), Ramesses (1268 AD - 1298 AD), Wang Kon (1304 AD - 1340 AD)
Event log:
Spoiler :
LowtherCastle
Deity
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If I'm not mistaken, Gosha190 is not Russian. So clearly that's not the real Why. I think maybe the why is God. 
btw, I was feeling decent about my game until chunkymonkey gave me a similar spanking. Even worse though was GOTM27, where I had the Conquest award in the bag, but ran out of time about 20 turns short of the end because I had to go skiing in France...
btw, I was feeling decent about my game until chunkymonkey gave me a similar spanking. Even worse though was GOTM27, where I had the Conquest award in the bag, but ran out of time about 20 turns short of the end because I had to go skiing in France...
I have a question regarding strategy 1. Do you really think cats are needed? You hinted above that you considered to win by swords only. With this settings, the AI will not have longbowmen before 1 AD, and there won't be any 60% cities before 1 AD either (perhaps an early holy city). The AI will not build many axes before 1 AD either. That means you can stop research at Animal Husbandry and Iron Working i.e. skip literature and also skip the oracle. With the amount of gems available, courthouses were not really needed. The problem of course is to reach the 62% land. I presume you settled several cities at the end, yes?
In my game, I reached cannons, but not cavalry. The cannons didn't make that big difference, but CR2 promoted grenadiers were really nice
One reason for teching to Chemistry is the added bonus for workshops. That's really a huge boost to the production, especially on crazy resource maps, where a lot of hills were tundra/ice/desert.
I replayed the map and settled on the stone instead. I got the GW in 2410 BC (no extra settler). What a completely different game!And I teched BW first, which was not optimal in this case due to all the horses. BW could have been better if horses were not in the FC, but the corn on the desert was probably more valuable to improve than pre-chopping the GW.
Unfortunately, your images are no longer available (due to the security breach). Could you possibly upload them again, please?
Gosha190
King
I'm not ObOrmot (put bold letter in your mind, please!). So I am not enough skilled in war and I prefer to have excessive military power when I start war.
Before that I like to use lover number strong units instead horde of weak units.
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