5th Apolyton Civ3 Tournament : 1-21/Feb/2002

[Chemical Ollie]

Great game! A lot of first-timers here: First CIV3 game I win without a single reload, first time I dominate the game from BC ages (I only play monarch and up) and first tournament game I get a decent score in. I also planned to get my first conquest vic, but domination was triggered when I least expected it. I got score 3008 in AD 2008. My second or maybe third best score ever.

I expanded fast to gain control of my home island and built a culture bomb to deny Persia the iron they had taken. Then I built a stack of 10-15 veteran horsies plus a few impis and went for some Ayatolla ass. The war took less than 300 years and they were dead about 300 BC. I got myself a golden age to build the Great Library and Lighthouse. Then I switched to republic (which I never left) and went for peaceful expansion and research until roughly 1500 AD. Well, research is not the correct word, as I let the Great Library handle that and used all money to rush improvements. I settled the virgin Island in the west and did hardly build an offensive unit in all that time. I was beaten in the race to the middle-age happiness wonders by just a few turns, which would prove really painful in the later wars, but got Sun-Tzu and some others.

The Ivans declared war. Stupid of them. I had just upgraded my horsies to cavalery and rolled over the Russian mainland in just a few turns. In the humiliating peace, they were left with only 2 cities. I got a GL which I used to build the FP in the south coast of "Great West Virgin Island". Not the optimal spot for a productive empire perhaps, but that was the most productive terrain I owned outside my home island. I also got Leo when conquering Moscow.

Then the stupid Greek declared war (no offence, Marko). I took one Island with ease, but then my advance stalled for 25+ turns as I had to build up my strenght for the next assault. This was my biggest mistake in the game, as war unhappiness was a real pain to no good use. I should had made peace and then attacked them again after my build-up was ready. The Greeks had sea dominance, so I didn't like the idea to try to pass their million-ironclad fleet until I had some destroyers as escort. I took one more island (with all the silk)and made peace.

The Russian capital converted to me, can you believe? I decided sneak-attacked and took their last city too. Then for some reason I can't remember, the whole world declared war on me. Lucky for me, I had just gotten tanks and flight. For a while, I was really in the crap and lost a whole island to the Germans (the useless tundra island to the northwest). War unhappiness was totally awful and my research was down to zero. However, a few good moves saved me. First of all, I mobilised, then I was able to make a separate peace with the Greeks. Later I persuaded the Greeks to join me in a pact against Germany. I was slowly but steadily rolling over the Babs and landed a transport with 8 tanks that quickly reclaimed my former tundra island from the Krauts. Man, did it feel good to raze Babylon with 20+ citicens.

The peace with Babylon was hard for them and I got rocketry, computers and all but 2 cities. These remains was taken in my backstab move a few turns later. My war with Germany felt like going forever and their cities culture-flipped back to them all the time. When I had pressed them back to their mainland and denied them all their resources, they conscripted millions of riflemen and longbows that was wrecking havoc on my wounded tanks. Finally, they died in 2002. I rushed-bought temples in a lot of captured cities. The border expansion from that move triggered my domination win in 2008, when I was almost ready to backstab in blitz Greece in just a few turns.

[Ghengis Brom]

I just realized...

I just realized you have use your board name for your tourny zip file. I will be reposting my game with the correct name as soon as get home this evening.

[Ghengis Brom]

Re: I ain't proud

Originally posted by Ghengis Brom
Here it is, my first completed Apolyton Tournament. Figures it would take the easiest map yet for me to get out of the stone age. I learned a lot from this one though.

Mandatory Retirement in 2050
2nd place behind the Greeks
Score 1541

I have reattached the file using the proper naming convention.

I thought I had done it. Here it is.

[mirrorball]

woops!

woops, here's the same game, just a renamed zip file.

[White Elk]

Conquered in 1625 AD for 3573 points

I thought for sure I would have a Domination victory by the mid 1500's, and was quite certain of it by the end of the century, but it wasn't to be. If anyone who downloads this file has any thoughts on why I wasn't able to achieve the Domination victory please let me know.

Good start location. Engaged the Persians early but had some difficulty, finally conquered them in 480 AD. Gained a leader in the final years of the conflict and used him to rush build Palace in the town of Rollin Dice located in the U-shaped continent to the South West (had already built Forbidden Palace to the East of the starting location).

The Golden Age was unfortunatly triggered by an Impi warrior defense a little too early. I was able to build Libraries and a few other infrastructure improvements but wasn't big enough and built up enough to really capitilize.

The next objective was to capture the German, Russian and Greek cities that bordered my terratory. In the mayhem that followed another leader emerged to lead an Army. That Armies first and only battle resulted in a retreat against a veteren Greek Musketman. They barely escaped with their lives.

While all this was going on I started colonizing open spaces and then rush building Temples to "connect the dots" in preparation for a Domination victory. Then after the defeat of the Russians and the Germans and the eminent fall of the Greeks, the unexpected happend. A city protected by a lone elite Swordsman was attacked by Babylon. The swordsman prevailed and my third leader emerged. That was the first time I've had a leader created while defending. The elite Impi defense bringing on a Golden Age was also a first for me. It's like a theme or something.
Anyway, that leader was used to create the second Army just in time to lead the charge for the final battle. And that's it.

P.S. This time the final turn will be quick. All cities producing Wealth and the only active units are those involved in the final battle. Big difference from the mess I left at the end of my first tournament submission.

[White Elk]

Oops, forgot to attach the game

[Zirak]

This was a fun game !!!

Shaka, 1675 AD Domination with 3853p

Thanks for a great tournament !!!

// Zirak

[Achnor]

He he, I enjoyed this one! I decided to go for Space-win before I started and stayed true to my goal throughout the game. A bit easy though...didn't have to struggle much. I played this in one sitting. Started 2 hours after my last exam and was finished 8 hours later. I think I'll try to perfect my game with the next tournament.

Space win in 1974, 3004 I think...

Achnor

[matohl]

Here's my finished game, 2500+ score-victory in 2050 AD. Not very good, I know, but I submit it anyway. I changed the strategy in the mid of the game and went for a conquest victory that I didn't have the time to follow through. Originally I aimed for a space-race victory. Well, I guess I should have taken care of those pestering Persians from the start...

[Master Dré]

Tournament 5, my game...

Hello all,

I have enjoyed playing this tournament. It is totally new for me, actually I have not finished one game yet (besides this tournament) as I haven't got civ3 right from the start. My story:

Started building 4 or 5 cities, then building up forces, mainly archers and those useless impi's...Destroyed persia easily.

Expanded both to the south and west. On both continents other "tribes"were already setled. Made some war with both greece and babylonia and took control of both continents. Then starting to build forbidden palace on the south continent with a great leader.

Then I made the mistake of doing nothing with my military overweight. I just started to build up those two continents.

When I had cavalry I started to conquer greece and russia; far too late!

At the end of the game the only opponent left was germany, I could easily overrun (Blitz-krieg!?) them as my army was really massive.

Conclusion: I should have been more agressive with such a big force or I shouldn't have build it up, not someting in between...

Domination, 3300+ points

André Kikkert

[solo]

Launched a spaceship in 1850, with a score of 1994. It could have been a lot earlier, but I lost out in the wonder races for the Pyramids and Copernicus. My most distant and most corrupt city was able to build an ironworks.

Without any rivers, I had to settle for coal plants, but with a lot of workers, pollution was not that bad and surprisingly easy to manage UNTIL I built Mass Transit everywhere, after which there was big-time pollution. Hmm, I think the discovery of Ecology does much to trigger extra pollution.

There was one ill-advised sneak attack by the Persians, in an otherwise very peaceful game. By building the Manhattan Project to trigger a late and very useful Zulu Golden Age, discoveries until the end of the game came every 4 turns. Throughout the game, I had to learn almost all the techs myself, even though they were sold or shared immediately after acquisition. So much for 5 "scientific" opponents.

[Be Quicker]

First Tourney.

Wanted quickest realtime victory so after initial conquering, I went for UN.

But Bad Score.

[Ney]

Histogram victory: 2079 pts

Here it is. I had written down the whole story, but when I posted it, the system said I was not logged in and wiped out everything. So now just the game and a question: does the new version (1.17) affect saved games? If not, are new tournaments going to take into account the new version?

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by solo
Launched a spaceship in 1850

We all knew that solo would also be early launcher in civ3.
Anyway, I say WoW!
Would you mind giving some details (GLs, governments, number of cities,...)?

[solo]

La Fayette,

I centered Zimbabwe on the home continent to make the most of its corruption control and built 7 cities as quickly as Zimbabwe could crank out the settlers. I started Colossus and the Pyramids as early as possible, while following a research path to reach Literature as soon possible, after which libraries became the priority. When I missed out on the Pyramids, I built the Great Library instead, which gained a few techs during the next part of the game. Even with that wonder, I still maxed out research to get into Republic ASAP to speed up learning techs. Republic was given to all the AI immediately, so they could switch to it and learn faster, too.

Everything was geared towards my primary goal during the game, which was to have 1000 or so total beakers to get 4 turn advances in the Modern Age, so 4 more cities were added, 3 on a nearby island and 1 more on a small islet having good luxuries plus the iron works resource combo. City growth took priority to increase commerce as quickly as possible, which is where your "size 6" helped me zip those island cities up to full size quickly. I went for all scientific wonders, only missing out on Copernicus, and always gave science improvements the priority.

It took time to build, but the Forbidden Palace came in just in time to boost the science output of the island cities. During the game, the most time ever spent on learning a tech was 10 turns, and I tried to keep the AI learning the techs I still lacked by always keeping them up to date. This provided about 4 or 5 techs through trade. Since they were scientific, I led them into new ages to be able to trade for their freebies.

As noted before, a well-timed Golden Age pushed my 1000 beaker total up to the needed 1500, guaranteeing advances every 4 turns for the rest of the game. This saved about 20 or so turns, which translated into 40 or more game years.

I think my generosity with techs to the AI kept most of them peaceful, as I only had one 5-turn war with the Persians who accepted peace after I razed two of their puny cities with tanks, and sunk a few galleons with my battleships. They attacked without oil or rubber to build a more modern force, so were never a threat.

I hope that's enough detail.

solo