Unofficial April results and spoilers

[BillChin]

Please post spoilers and finished games on this thread. Please do not read this thread until you have seen the world map, or have played up to 10 A. D.

If you have not downloaded the game, the file is in this thread:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46271

For finished games, include your nickname, your score, type of victory (or defeat) and a zip file of the save game. I will tabulate results as they come in and update every now and again.

The goal posts are highest overall score, fastest victory for Conquest, Cultural, Domination, Spaceship, and highest Diplomatic score. Please no reloading or restarting or using exploits. 1.17f exploits include joining workers to cities for the purpose of pop rushing, scout resource blocking, endless ship hopping for land units.

This month's game is random civ, standard size map, random barbs, random map type, eight opponents, default 1.17f rules. If you need the patch go to:

http://www.civ3.com/patches.cfm

Enjoy.

[punkbass2000]

Well, as promised, I have lost already, with a score of about a hundred. This is due to a number of factors:
1. I usually play Regent, and Monarch tends to kick my ass
2. I was the Zulus, who I don't think anyone thinks is a good civ, based on the top civ choice threads. I think they're down there with the English
3. Bad start. As anyone reading this thread knows, the start isn't great. The capital is decently placed, but there isn't very many places to go. I usually play a bad start any way, but I'm just saying.
4. I started a war with the Babylonians based on the idea that I thought I would be able to take Babylon with just a few archers. I was wrong.
5. For some reason, shortly after making war with the Babs, everyone on the continent demanded huge sums and subsequently went to war with me upon refusal. Except for the Indians, who chickened out after their demand was turned down.

Here's a save of me about to lose:

[Inverse Icarus]

the zulu blow. I'll deal.

the start blows. I'll deal.

Some great land that takes 12 turns to get to, only to have babylon colonize it all... I'll try to deal.

Germany going from Polite to declaring war... Getting mad.

1 archer killing 2 impis, denying me a golden age... real mad.

same archer taking out another impi and Zimbabwe, bye bye game.

[D.K]

well, what can i say, short and sweat

built two scouts then a warrior and quickly discovered the desperate situation i was in

i decided to try and attack the germans (as they were likely to attack me at some point anyway) i went in with 4 warriors and died to 2 spearmen - i think i got unlucky with the timing of his settler

anyway, i quit before the final blows hit home, but needless to say, england and babylon joined in against me and that was that


its a pity this game is such a tough start - im sure some good players will do well, my tactic may have worked if i had come across one spear in berlin


anyway, it maybe wise for someone to play the game in a little to check it offers a reasonable opportunity for novices to get started


just a thought, but thanks for the effort Bill

[geofelt]

I am doing better now. I agree that it was a tough starting position, excepting for zimbabwe. I don't much like the zulu attributes, either. (I like egyptians best). After trying to stay peaceful, and ignoring trespassers, the english, indians, and persians ganged up on me. I had good defenders, and held them off for a while, paying gold and tech for peace with all but the persians who also wanted a city. Eventually, I lost a city to the persians and indians and got peace. I considered giving up, but since it was a comparison tournament, I persisted. In time, those cities revolted and joined me again. During this period, the AI had three factions at war with each other. A good thing for me, since I stayed out of it.The peace allowed me to build up again, and get cavalry. The babylonians attacked,--big mistake--, and now I have them on the run and expect to finish them off in ten turns or so. A strange thing-- the persians were attacking some of my babylonian targets in the turn just before me. It was almost as if my former enemy was now my ally and weakening the defenses for me.

[BillChin]

Well, my game crashed when I took out one of the enemy civs and they still had a settler on a Galley. I'll have to reload from the Autosave folder and figure a way to keep playing without making the game crash again.

The start is kind of tricky. Diplomacy and bribes to get allies and limit wars to one enemy at a time are a good way to go on this map.

For those players who are having a hard time (looks like the majority), the Civfanatics April game may be more fun. It is a Warlord level game as India:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3gotm/

[D.K]

yeah i found this game (april civ fanatics) and am really enjoying it

i can also recommend it to people who struggled with this months game. Its not so challenging for the good players, but for relative novices, its great

[nbarclay]

Looks like I may be the first one to finish this with a win. This game was a strange one compared with how my games usually go.

Okay, my nation is expansionist, so the thing to do is send out scouts. Early on, I get four of them going every which direction. Normally, I aim for Republic as quickly as I can, but this time, my scouts get me Ceremonial Burial and Mysticism early. Bingo, 80 turns at minimum research and I can get Monarchy. My thinking is, I’ll switch to Monarchy to get out of Despotism and then switch to Republic later. Right? My scouts also find a settler up in between Babylon and Persia, although it takes a few centuries for it to get down to the Dye River north of Germany.

No one looks like a good victim for an early war, so I play builder for a while. Once I get Monarchy, I start letting the AIs do my research for me for a while and build up some cash. Finally, I get to the point where my iron source is hooked up and I’m about ready to build up an army and attack Babylon. (After all, they’re holding the land where my Forbidden Palace belongs).

Except it doesn’t quite happen that way. My iron source (my only one at the time, although I claimed another shortly after) plays out, and right about the same time, Persia takes a notion to attack me. Persia is pretty big and tough, and taking on immortals in a dense jungle with nothing better than horsemen doesn’t seem like too attractive a proposition. Fortunately, I have a fortune in gold stockpiled, so I bribe Babylon and India (something like 600 gold total) to ally with me against Persia. At the same time, I build lots of horsemen and impi and a few archers.

That war gives me my golden age, and I find myself really, really glad I’m in Monarchy instead of Despotism. I imagine the war also launched Persia’s golden age, and probably Babylon’s as well. Facing new threats closer to home, and with their immortals that were attacking me wounded, the Persians withdraw. I give chase, but the dense jungles destroy my horsemen’s speed advantage. Finally, I catch up with the Perisans in their size one town north of my cities north of Germany. That town doesn’t survive the fighting, and then I head north and capture two Babylonian towns that Persia had taken (getting three Babylonian workers and one Persian one in the process.) I figure I’ve done my part in the war with Persia and make peace even though it’s only been about ten turns, and get some free tech out of the deal. (The main reason I didn’t go on fighting was that the rest of Persia’s cities were on the other side of some Babylonian territory, so anything I captured would have been pretty much useless and hard to hold onto.)

Now the war’s over, but I’m still in my golden age, and there’s no way I’m going to change governments during a golden age. With Monotheism and Feudalism from Persia, the time looks ripe to research Chivalry, upgrade some horsemen to knights, build more knights, and take out Babylon. Except the Babylonians get in a warmongering mood just as I do my first upgrade, so they end up being the ones to start the war.

The war goes pretty smoothly, aside from having Ur flip on me about three times. (The first time, it took about four injured knight units and a few older units with it, but from then on I figured it made more sense just to let it flip and recapture it. I even got a couple knights or so promoted to elite that way.) Then I finally get enough knights that aren’t needed to watch Ur to take out the rest of Babylon, leaving them one city toward the south end of the Persian peninsula.

As I’d hoped, I get a great leader out of the war, and he builds my Forbidden Palace in Nineveh just northeast of the city of Babylon. That leaves me way, way ahead of anyone else in production capacity.

So now maybe I have enough peace and stability to switch to Republic. Except by this time, we’re getting very close to the techs for Democracy. So I go builder for a while, research Banking and Democracy, and then switch governments. After some tech trading and buying, I’m in an excellent position to beeline for Military Tradition, build knights to upgrade to cavalry, and go back on the offensive. (Hey, we’re militaristic, right?) I have my war with India pretty much all planned out.

Except once again, things don’t go the way I planned. A few turns before I’m ready to get Military Tradition, Persia decides to attack me. (Which is completely insane since they’ve been fighting India for decades, but it’s still a problem for me because my cities are still building banks and universities instead of knights.)

The start of the war is rather bloody, with losses maybe a little in Persia’s favor. I mishandle a troop movement and lose a city momentarily, but I take it back immediately. Then I “liberate” Bombay, which Persia had taken from India, and go on to take Arbela. I get a great leader out of the Persian counterattack on that city.

The problem is, Arbela is on the plains where it’s going to be hard to hold, plus, until I get my production back on a war footing, I don’t want to risk losing units in a culture flip. So what do I do? I give the city to India and let them be the ones to fight Persia over it. By the time I’m ready to take Pasargadae a few turns later, it has a war elephant unit sitting outside and just one pike unit defending it, so I figure my strategy paid off.

Persia still won’t talk peace. BIG mistake. I’ve finally discovered Military Tradition (several techs ahead in the tech race), and my enormous economy is finally on a war footing. Remember, I have a good core of my own plus all of Babylon, and my palace and forbidden palace are pretty well positioned for me to use all my cities. And my workers have been busy bees building mines, clearing and mining jungle, and so forth, so my production is excellent.) Within ten more turns, there is nothing left of Persia (or of Babylon either, since the last Babylonian city got in my way). That war ends in 1100 AD.

India is my next target, partly because eliminating them removes the possibility of having to fight on two fronts and partly because they have saltpeter while England doesn’t. Even if England gets Military Tradition, it won’t matter. So about five turns after the fall of Persia, it’s off to war again.

Initially, I try to attack too many places at once, and my two most important attacks fail miserably. The war turns into a lot more of a meatgrinder than I had expected, but my initial army size, my technological superiority, and my enormous production advantage make it just a matter of time before India falls. As the war against India winds down, Germany gets an attack of insanity and declares war in spite of (1) just having four cities, (2) being hopelessly behind in technology, and (3) not having any mounted troops of any kind. My southern force, which I’d left to guard against England (which I’d fought a brief and inconclusive skirmish against earlier) pummels them. The war with India ends, with me thinking I’ll leave them an island city, but then starts back up almost immediately when a city culture flips on me. India learns the hard way that harboring rebels is NOT a good idea, and soon ceases to exist.

During the Indian war, I finally make contact with America and Japan. They’re hopelessly backward, believe it or not, but they do have some luxuries worth buying. I keep the contact information to myself, not wanting to give up any advantage.

With India and Germany gone, it’s just England and me on the home continent. I count my forces and make a rather odd decision: I stop producing military units immediately prior to going to war. I figure I already have plenty of forces, given the enormous technological advantage England’s lack of saltpeter gives me, and I’m a bit behind in building banks and universities.

Now it’s cavalry blitz time, railroad style. Capture Coventry, on the coast between London and the elephants. Build a railroad to it. Capture London. Build a railroad to it. Capture York, on the southern coast southeast of London. Build a railroad most of the way to it, but now I’m out of workers. Oh well, England had some cities that weren’t reachable that first turn anyhow.

One more turn and it’s all but over. England has an island city left that falls the third turn of the war, and a city protected by jungle at the southern tip of the Persian Peninsula that survives another turn after that (just because it takes my cavalry so long to slog through the jungles), but that’s just clean-up.

I’m not telling what happened between then and the end of the game; at least not until after the tournament is over. But the end result was (drum roll, please)

Domination victory, 1380 AD, with a score of 4716.

[BillChin]

It is too quiet out there.

I hope people are still playing their April games. So far there are only two files submitted on this thread so the field is wide open.

I finished my game. I'll post it later in the month. For now, I'll just say that I am currently in second place Considering there are only three submitted games, and one is a loss, that is not a tremendous achievement.

[Inverse Icarus]

sorry bill, but this game wasn't fun for me...

i usually like overcomming a challange, but this was just too much, it wasn't really enjoyable.

kudos though, someone had to make an unofficial tourney

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by BillChin
I finished my game. I'll post it later in the month. For now, I'll just say that I am currently in second place Considering there are only three submitted games, and one is a loss, that is not a tremendous achievement.

The real question is, did you have fun along the way? If so, you've achieved the most important thing. I'm usually only half serious about tournament games - I want to do well, but having fun is more important than doing everything possible to try to win the tournament. This time around, having fun and getting a good finish just happened to click together nicely (beating my old best finishes by about 430 years and about 500 points).

Nathan

[watorrey]

Well... i am still playing the game. It is 1670AD and we have yet to research mass production.

I moved 1 space so i could found my capital on the coast. Then i found a settler in the second hut south of the capital. The first one triggered when i founded Zimbabwe and gave me a tech.

Geeeeze... i hate jungle.

The persians decided to declare war on me eventually. Since i had my science at 0%, i just paid everyone else for an alliance. Except England, who the peraians allied with later. I fought a few battles on my turf and triggered a despotic golden age... bummer. Eventually i made peace after the aliances were up.

Got the Colossus and the Lighthouse. Colonize the little islands up north. And eventually sneak a galley over to the Japanese. They are waaaaay behind and have no money. So.. i just give them and the americans everything and make money off my neighbors for contact.

Later, Babalon decided it didn't like me putting city where i did and decided to 'sneak' attack it. My military wasn't so great and i have expanded to the east in more or less a straight line of cities. So i had them on the north there and on the east up higher. I razed the city with iron at the north of the inland sea and built my own next to it. Finally!! i got iron Time to build a few knights. That was pretty much that war.

Then everyone else declared war on the germans. I stayed out of it figuring i will get any captured cities through culture flipping. Except england took most of them and she was building her culture fast and getting most of the good wonders.

**I had a trade deal w/ gemany and someone pillaged the road to berlin. I end up taking the diplomatic hit for breaking the trade deal!!!! Nobody will do a per turn deal with me now so i need to build up my treasury.**

After riflemen, england sneak attacks me with a 13 hp army. My rifleman won the battle So i pay everyone except america and japan for an alliance. Now i have everyones cavalry galloping through my territory. It become a race between me and persia to see who can take the most of her cities. I concentrate on the easy ones (not on hills). I get all her wonders.. academy, bachs, hanging gardens, wall, and one or two others that expired plus more luxuries.

Now i have too many cities. The persian cities that were english are flipping to me. I just built the TOE and hoover dam. The japanese have destroyed the americans. The persians got the last english city and the germans are long gone. I am way ahead on the histograph in all things and as soon as tanks show up nobody better mess with me.

This won't be my best game but i will win it and post it here.
just thought i would add to the thread

[watorrey]

Okay... here is my game submission. I usually am a reloader but i made a point not to in this game even if i hit end of turn and forgot to do something. Gotta admit... the game had a slightly different feel to it knowing i wasn't going to reload. Maybe i will try that some more

So... after many turns of peace and my deciding on a space race victory, because i was not assured a majority vote for the UN, Persia decides to demand tribute of little importance. I refused, he declared war, and moved a stack of tanks and mech infantry to a mountain next to the same city Babylon wanted earlier. This was the very same turn i discovered synthetic fibers So i upgraded all my tanks and moved alot of mech infantry to that city. (the one up north by the two wheat on the plains). Next, i proceeded to buy alliances with the 3 remaining civs, Babylon, India & Japan. About 6 turns later Persia was history and i had his Trading Co. & Shakespeares Theater. Got my only leaders during this last war.

I was far ahead in tech and could have played longer until the others caught up and made the space race closer, but i just wanted it to end... if you know what i mean.

Here is the file (i hope). It is saved at the end of the turn in 1852. End the turn... we discover the laser... some stuff gets built, just say "OK" to the advisor... then when the spaceship screen comes up (thrusters built) assign the Planetary Party Lounge to Umtata (has half an ICBM built) from this screen... more stuff gets built and then the Lounge gets built that turn as well. End of game!!!

1853 AD Space Race Victory 2959 score

(Comments welcome from anyone who actually looks at the game)

[BillChin]

My game goes well with a few bumps in the road. I build about 10 cities by 530 B. C. and decide to attack Babylon. They are close, many German cities are on hills, I do not want to wait for Knights.

Babylon is spread out and relatively weak. I follow the Swordsmen Conquest game plan, attacking with a stack of about ten units. The war goes well, until Persia butts their nose in and attacks my forces. This complicates matters. I get ROP and ally with Germany against Persia at huge price in gold. I later rope India into a war with Persia for another chunk of gold. The Persian Immortals inflict heavy casualties on my army, but with two allies their fate is sealed.

The Babylonian war is a long one, finishing in 250 A. D. It takes until 670 A. D. to defeat Persia, with a game crash at the end. I fight get Chivalry and upgrade about 12 Horsemen to Knights. I have a short war with India and Germany attacks. I lose several Knights trying to take the Indian capital, they ask for peace and I agree and turn my remaining Knights on Germany. I ally with the English. The English have a small empire, but are cranking out wonders.

Eventually Germany falls. India attacks England with a small force. I join in against the Brits. London falls in 1415 A. D. It takes me a long time to find the other two civs on the other continent. I never declare war against them, and achieve domination in 1555 with a score of 4643.

[BillChin]

April game results as of Friday the 26th:

nbarclay, Domination victory, 1380 AD, score 4716
BillChin, Domination, 1555 AD, score 4643
watorrey, Space Race Victory, 1853 AD, score 2959
punkbass2000, defeat, 570 BC, score 156