Au 201 spolier thread

[Arrian]

I've played up to 560AD, and have secured control of my continent. FP was built manually in former India (nicely centered). Score around 1800, nearest competition around 800.

I have built the Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Great Wall (simple denial there) and Sistine Chapel. I have also captured the Great Library (Babylon). Leo's will be done in 10, Sun Tzu (if I don't lose it) will be done in 20.

I have a largish force of war chariots and horsemen, and am building galleys as fast as I can in 2 cities. I should have roughly 15 galleys by the time I have Astronomy. 15 caravels = 45 knights delivered to Germany.

No leaders yet, but all I really need is 1, for a palace move to the German/Roman/Persian continent.

Nathan,

The same thing that happened in badman's game happened in mine: first contact was actually with the far continent (Greece, Russia, Iroquois) due to the Great Lighthouse (Greece).

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Arrian
The same thing that happened in badman's game happened in mine: first contact was actually with the far continent (Greece, Russia, Iroquois) due to the Great Lighthouse (Greece).

As I noted on the download thread, I goofed and didn't get that continent as far away as I'd intended. There are about three tiles where a range-four ship can cross. The distance was supposed to be two greater to handle galleons+Magellan's. (Interestingly, I'd already had one of my own lighthouse-enhanced galleys doing a perimeter check, so it was only a few turns after I checked out the problem in the editor that I found it the other way too. But in the spirit of the game, I turned around and headed back home, leaving the job of making contact for a caravel that would stop in the ocean along the way (and that ended up sinking doing so on its way home). By the way, what I found when I made contact was interesting: Greece and the Iroquois had wiped Russia off of their continent, leaving the Russians with just some small islands.

Nathan

[Arrian]

It doesn't appear that there has been any fighting amongst the AIs in my game.

Instead, people took turns messing with me.

Very, very early on, Babylon demanded 48 gold from me, and declared war when I refused. This resulted in some warrior vs. warrior battles, and I made peace when I saw the first bowman coming my way. The peace deal gave me a discount on Mysticism.

Then I beat up on India with swordsmen, during which the English attacked me from behind. Jerks. So I hit them with swords and eventually, WC's (waited for Monarchy). I wiped the English out.

Then I hit Babylon, knocking them to 1 city. Then I hit France, knocking them to 1 city. Then I wiped out India. Then I wiped out America. Then I finished France, and finally Babylon.

I took what felt like heavy casualties. The AI had an awful lot of units in each city - more than I'm used to, and that chewed up more of my units than expected. Further, I did get some poor rolls, which resulted in not 1, not 2, but 3 elite war chariots losing 5 straight rolls to spearmen, failing retreat, and dying without inflicting a scratch.

My girlfriend informed me that I was screaming at the pixels again.

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

I was pretty lucky in my early game.

My first scouting warrior went exactly in India's direction. I had 2 warriors and my advisor told me I had a bigger military than Ghandi. So I attacked and won. I wiped the Indians with this battle in 3200 BC. Delhi became like my second home.

I then quickly expanded, taking advantage of the cattles near Thebes and Man-Nefer. Then, for no apparent reason, the Americans attacked me with two stacks of 2 warriors. I quickly bribed Babylon into the war to act as a buffer between my poorly defended territory and the evil Americans. We must note that the Lincoln didn't ask for anything. This was a pure sneak attack. However, AI sneak attacks are a bit predictable.

Two or three turns later, France joined the war against me... They attacked me from behind (on the Babs side...) I took one city, got two from the peace treaty. France is now a 3 city civ.

Meanwhile, the Babs got the Lighthouse and I got the GLib and the Colossus. I quickly sent a couple suicide galleys far from my island and made contact with Persia, Rome and Germany.

I decided to clear France from the surface of the Earth. There, my luck stopped short. I had 12 swordmen/horsemen of the mountain near Paris. They only managed to kill one spearman and promote another to Elite. I think Arrian can understand from what he saw recently.

I'm aiming for a cultural win. I got a temple built in Thebes in 3100BC. I really take advantage of the cheap and cathedrals. Everyone is in awe with me and I have close to 10000 culture in 100 AD...

--Kon--

[nbarclay]

My first expeditionary force to Persia was a disaster. Rather than get Chivalry and deprive myself of the ability to build dirt-cheap units for upgrade to cavalry, I decided to see what I could do with war chariots and horsemen. I landed one swordsman, one spearman, and ten war chariots and horsemen (more than half elite) outside the Persian capital in the hopes that Persia had been too busy fighting Rome and Germany to have a lot of forces there. But they had enough, and even had a couple immortals around to counterattack with. Only three of my dozen units survived to return home.

My second expeditionary force had no such problems. It was composed entirely of cavalry, twelve in the first wave with reinforcements hot on their heels as additional newly-built caravels reached the area and the first wave made a second trip. I conquered more Persian cities in about five turns than Rome and Germany combined had in about thirty, leaving Persia with only a single city on the northwestern island. By the way, this is the first time I've ever had alliances run their 20-turn course and renewed them.

After resting up briefly from the war with Persia (and waiting for the alliance to expire), I turned on my Roman ally. I got my first great leader early in the war and took a chance building an army to get the Heroic Epic. Within a few turns, Rome was in the same situation as Persia, with only a single city on that same island.

By then, I was getting pretty close to discovering Steam Power, so I decided to wait until I could do a railroad blitz to attack Germany. (I'd already imported a gargantuan work force to clear the Persian jungles.) But Germany had other ideas and moved some forces into my territory, apparently hoping I wouldn't notice. They caught me out of position, with lots of my cavalry on anti-flip detail (not that I especially needed them there with how dominant my culture is), so I was "only" able to defeat Germany's offensive forces and capture their one Persian city (getting a leader in the process) when Bismarck refused to withdraw. Over the next couple turns, I took a two more cities, and then it was "I've been workin' on the railroad" time. Two more turns sufficed to clear Germany off the continent, and other forces had already driven them off Gem Island and were ready to establish a foothold on the northwestern island. (That happened around 800 AD.)

Moving my capital to Pompeii did wonders for my finances. I'd researched Steam Power and started on Industrialization at a 4-turn pace, but had to run a deficit to do it. But with my capital moved, I'm running a surplus in the average 200 gpt range in spite of not having even a single gold income from any foreign source. And that's before having much time to build up my new continent! I even got another leader, who will rush Universal Suffrage in 830 AD. (I'm hoping for a fourth to get Longevity since this is an AU mod game, and with seven elite cavalry who haven't yet produced leaders, odds may actually be in my favor if I'm willing to take my time.)

By the way, I still don't have Bach's, Smith's, or Shakespeare's; I haven't gotten around to the techs for them. (Once my iron works gets on-line, and especially once Thebes starts growing toward size 20, I'd like to see even an Emperor-level AI try to out-build me!) But every other ancient and medieval wonder will be in my posession when Newton finishes setting up his university in two turns, and I've built everything since the Pyramids and Oracle myself. (Oh, and I still don't have Chivalry, although I could trade to the Greeks or Iroquois for it if I saw any point.)

Nathan

[Arrian]

You avoided Music Theory and Economics?

Wow, that wouldn't have even occurred to me. It seems to have served you just fine, though.

I'm hoping my iron next to Thebes holds up (1 already depleted) for the IronWorks, but it's not likely to really matter.

I figure I'll hit Germany hard with Knights, rest up, and then decide whether to continue into Rome or wait for Cavalry. Persia will get the Cav treatment.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Arrian
You avoided Music Theory and Economics?

Wow, that wouldn't have even occurred to me. It seems to have served you just fine, though.

I'm hoping my iron next to Thebes holds up (1 already depleted) for the IronWorks, but it's not likely to really matter.

I figure I'll hit Germany hard with Knights, rest up, and then decide whether to continue into Rome or wait for Cavalry. Persia will get the Cav treatment.

-Arrian

If I had expected any kind of race for them, my priorities would have been different. But as it is, Bach's won't really come into its own until I start building hospitals (marketplaces with 8 luxuries work wonders), and I can do 4-turn research without Smith's. That made Democracy to help my outlying cities and Navigation/Magellan's to speed up my ships higher medieval priorities, and my next targets after I finish Indsutrialization are (1) Sanitation, (2) Scientific Method, and (3) Replaceable Parts. (Normally, those priorities would be reversed, but my huge force of industrious slaves makes quick discovery of Replaceable Parts less important and early pollution from size 13+ less of a problem.) Then I get to decide whether my next priority will be Communism for police stations or going back after the medieval wonders I skipped over.

Good luck on your iron holding out, although as you alluded to, it's hardly a make-or-break proposition this game.

Nathan

[Theseus]

I'm doing a very early post (as suggested), without reading any of the other stuff.

I took the afternoon off for some personal stuff, and just fired 201 (Emp, AU Mod) up.

DEAR GOD, I already HAVE UP as far as I;m concerned!

It's 2270 BC.

Egypt (me) has 3 towns, 2 lux, Horses, 145 gold, and a tech lead (!) with The Wheel... only India has it besides me. I'm 22 turns from completing the Colossus, and no know AI civs are building it.

Mr. Peace has 3 towns, 1 gold, no lux, and no horses.

I just bopped an English Warrior / Settler team on the head, so Lizzie's got 2 towns and 0 gold, no lux.

Same for Joan and Linc, at 2 towns and 0 gold too.

WOW!

[Arrian]

I didn't have an early tech lead, but I also did not fall far behind like I normally do on Emperor. I also did this while stockpiling lots of gold.

The gold was partly due to a city-flip (india planted a city north of Thebes, which I flanked with two cities, SW & SE of it) that gave me a connected iron resource. I had been building vet warriors to upgrade, but only had managed to build maybe 6 of them. From that point on, even though I moved the Indian city up to the coast, I built my swordsmen straight-up. Though I will deliberately not road an iron resource to take advantage of a large upgrade, I will not break a source that is already roaded. It's just too... contrived. Am I wierd?

-Arrian

[yxhuvud]

In my game germany attacked Rome about the time I discovered that continent (after wiping my own). Rome fell fast, and the germans was the big guy on that continent, and having half the gem island and the other bigger island just above it. Rome was thereby reduced to a 3 city civ, having cities only on remote islands (it had had the lighthouse).

With germans being the biggest I made what I afterward can say was a pretty bad decsion, I made my ~70 knights attack persia instead of the germans. That was bad because it triggered a golden age for persia pretty fast. The first persian city fell without any big losses, but then I must have killed off like 20 knights at the next, a size 8 town on grassland with pikemen for defenders

Then the germans declared war on me, and I made peace with the persians, shortly followed by an attack on the germans by the persians. We diveded up the german area pretty well, and they were soon a OCC on the gem island.

Then I used cavalry to finish up the persians, and also rid the world of the remaining cities of the germans and persians, and also the romans. About the same time as I took the last cities, I finally made contact with russia.

Greece had already entered the industrial age, and had, except the obvious nationalism, already researched medicine (that is so wrong btw, the wonder must be changed so that the AI researches RR before medicine).
At the same time I changed to democracy, and researched new techs at 4 turns intervals, while having a good profit.

(I can still do that while beelining for motorized after hoover, btw. for a while I got like 700 gps )

Also, greece have managed to build 3 wonders, collosus, leonardo (I was researching the tech for it when I suddenly got a message it was built), and magellans. That continent was about par in tech until I reached the industrial ages and entered my second build phace.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Arrian
I didn't have an early tech lead, but I also did not fall far behind like I normally do on Emperor. I also did this while stockpiling lots of gold.

The gold was partly due to a city-flip (india planted a city north of Thebes, which I flanked with two cities, SW & SE of it) that gave me a connected iron resource. I had been building vet warriors to upgrade, but only had managed to build maybe 6 of them. From that point on, even though I moved the Indian city up to the coast, I built my swordsmen straight-up. Though I will deliberately not road an iron resource to take advantage of a large upgrade, I will not break a source that is already roaded. It's just too... contrived. Am I wierd?

-Arrian

Breaking a connection seems too contrived for me too. In AU 107, though, I worked around a variation of the problem by trading away both of my iron supplies. I was able to build my horsemen for cavalry upgrades, and I even had my future victims helping to pay for the upgrades.

[yxhuvud]

I am now finished with this game. It was somewhat too easy for me to really like it. In the end of the game I was more than half an age before the other civs in tech..

I saved my game a few turns before I would win by cultural victory, and it turned out I had enough turns to win by domination victory. (like 11 turns after I got access to tanks ^^)

I tehn backtracked and did the cultural victory as well to compare the scores, and it turned out the cultural win got me 6 points more, 7419 vs 7413

[yxhuvud]

hmm.. another thought: Is there any extra bonuses for completing the game in several ways in one turn?

[jshelr]

Advice Before Starting Please:

I don't want to read the spoilers before starting. However, given the objective of maxing the number of wonders and the promised-land nature of the starting spot, does it make sense to you guys for a player to try for a few mega cities at the beginning (say five), stop expanding to build wonders, and only later to go for a continent takeover after chivelry? Thanks

[Arrian]

I think that depends on your definition of UP. If you think UP means you have to build most of the ancient wonders yourself, then you probably should try to get several "mega cities" up and running for the wonder races.

Me, I don't really do it that way. The ancient wonders I built were: Colossus, HG, GW (just 'cause it was soooo quick during my GA). GL was captured. Pyramids, Oracle, G. Lighthouse are elsewhere. I still would say that I have, or am at least poised to acheive, UP.

-Arrian