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RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:59:30 GMT

Oooooh. Ahhhh.....

Thank you. :)

RE: January BTS GOTM

mongoose201 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:37:40 GMT

[quote][b]Nuclearcow (2/10/2008)[/b][hr]Did you end up starting this one, Mongoose? If so, did you have the typical results of heavy warfare?[/quote]

No, I didn't have time for this one, which is one of the reasons I couldn't post this one myself... ;)

In any case, Congrats to Nuclearcow (again..) for his January GOTM championship, with a score so obscene that I hesitate to post it.

With this victory, he also becomes the first GOTM player to reach the officer ranks ()

Excellent Job, sir..

:w00t:

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:09:34 GMT

Did you end up starting this one, Mongoose? If so, did you have the typical results of heavy warfare?

RE: January BTS GOTM

mongoose201 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:27:23 GMT

[b]Submissions Accepted:[/b]

Nuclearcow: 181,398 in 1600AD :w00t:

Scipio Africanus: 36,226 in 1908AD.. A score that would probably be good enough to win most months.

There is still about a week to go on this one... Posting the February game a bit later today.

RE: January BTS GOTM

General Georges — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:28:12 GMT

Hey I have an idea - how about starting the February GOTM while people finish up the Janurary GOTM. This will help get our GOTMs back on schedule of actually being 'monthly' while we let those who have yet to finish this month's GOTM still finish theirs for Fed 14th. Might cause a small time conflict for some, but if we set Feb's GOTM end date to lets say, March 7th, or earlier, it still gives tons of time.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:10:42 GMT

[quote]Don't you mean Police State? Nationalism is under the second column for civics, not the first 'Government' column. [Wink] [/quote]
Oops. Yes, you're right. I meant Police State. :blush:

RE: January BTS GOTM

Artymus — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:30:03 GMT

Well... I'm playing my way through this one at the moment just as the new game is being discussed. Started it a bit late, I know! :P But I have been playing for a while now, I think I'm up to around 500 AD right now. I don't know if I'll make the deadline for this one, whenever that may be, but I'll just finish it off for fun if I don't.

Well I guess with the bar being set at such a reasonable level I think it's still worth trying to beat it now! :D ...Seriously though NC that is a fantastic score, very well played. :cool: What a game to make my GOTM debut in!

I've been innundated with wars in this one, I figure it had a lot to do with the 11 civs on one land mass fighting for space had them all acting more aggresively than they would otherwise, A combination with the marathon setting maybe?

I really like the longer game setting, it does make everything in the game much more important and requires a lot more consideration than the normal speed setting. I had a fairly early war (one of three) with France which was more like chess than civ! One reacting with their 'pieces' to the other. Where one major mistake would have serious consequencies. The more of that the better in my book! The only problem was, it was just that moment that the Aztecs decided they wanted in on the fun... then Brennus and it's been near perpetual war ever since! :)

...Lots of fun!!

RE: January BTS GOTM

General Georges — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:13:01 GMT

[quote]Oh, I believe I did switch to Nationalism (thank you, Pyramids) at one point for the -50% war weariness. [/quote]

Don't you mean Police State? Nationalism is under the second column for civics, not the first 'Government' column. ;)

How about a standard size map next game with low seas and 10 civs? The low seas helps compensate a bit for the number of civs, but this larger number also means less land per civ (unless you conquer it all...). I was thinking maybe a 'Big and Small' map with 'Tech Brokering' off but 'Tech Trading' on! (permanent alliances off please)

RE: January BTS GOTM

Zigeuner — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:56:35 GMT

[quote]As far as a new GOTM, someone mentioned before that they would prefer not to have permanent alliances on "again." I think its nice to change things up a bit. Thus the bigger map and the advanced start this time. I'd agree that it might be nice to dump that feature for a month or two since we've had that one on so often. I 2nd that suggestion.[/quote]'Twas I who mentioned this. In my last game I was highlighting good relations with my neighbors. It was almost as bad as playing a team game. The Germans didn't want to trade plastic (until they finished the 3Gorges anyway :P) and asked insane prices for oil, but other than that we traded everything. The English and their redcoats were our war pet, so I made sure they didn't fall behind. Instead of wasting beakers on the same techs, we split our beakers up, two- sometimes three-ways. We were a whole age ahead by the end of the game, even though ours was but a small continent. With permanent alliances enabled, it would have been a complete walk-over, because my friends were my main rivals (for space victory). Anyway, that's why I don't like permanent alliances; too easy... Maybe other people have other experiences though. :)

[quote]Point 2: I really think "no tech trading" = "royal ba****d mode"

I think you might be right. You (Leo) mentioned that earlier and I almost think this game proves it. lol.[/quote]Heh, I like no tech trading, but I don't think I've had utter ba****ds for neighbors in them. Don't play enough to dispute your takes on it though...

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:23:46 GMT

[quote]Do you pack your cities in closer together NC?[/quote]
I think this game, I had them spread out more than normal. I would guess I'm average on packing them together. I'm not sure how many cities I had. I might have exaggerated and probably didn't have 30. 20, probably. I did have communism there at the end, which made things very nice, but most of the game, I didn't have it obviously. If each religious building is bringing in between 50 gold and 100, imagine how much the science slider can move up when you have all 3. Or how much it counters city maintenance costs. That would be the quick answer. I can post the save game if you want to take a look. It really wasn't all that impressive until the medieval era when I started to roll a bit. I had centuries of defending with little gains before that. When I started to roll in the 1500s, I pressed the attacks and the military production like crazy.

Oh, I believe I did switch to Nationalism (thank you, Pyramids) at one point for the -50% war weariness. Probably at the height of the weariness when I mentioned the 14 unhappy faces in Delhi. That was probably on top of 20% luxuries. I didn't run like that too long though as whichever civ I was fighting I wanted to wrap it up pretty quickly when the weariness was hitting that hard.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:16:36 GMT

I micro-manage to the max: maybe too much. I actually retired from that Sumeria map. Been playin' too much I think: getting too impulsive.

Congratulations on an amazing game NuclearCow! That has got to be the HIGHEST score I've ever seen in Civ!

Re: your comments on how you did it: 20 or 30 cities!?! HOW?! can you manage to pay for that many?

The thing that I still have not got a good intuition for in Civ4 is empire size, economy, and maintenance cost. I cannot recall for sure in this GOTM, but I vaguely recall having only about 15 cities TOTAL for most of the middle and Rennaissance eras. It was only late Industrial that I started taking away Brennus and Justinians cities. I had razed quite a few Greek, Aztec, French, etc. cities and only kept the ones that were on prime sites that would nicely define the ultimate borders of my empire. In short, I tried to keep the number of cities down to a minimum, and expanded the geographic size only as large as I needed for resource purposes. This has become my general strategy in Civ4: spread out the cities and where there is marginal terrain leave gaps.

Despite this, I always seem to get bogged down in the late BC period with escalating maintenance, and a plummeting science slider.

Do you pack your cities in closer together NC?

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:47:07 GMT

[quote]I thought number of happy people was the main thing that gave score. If you are at war all the time, I'd think you musta had some unhappy peeps sometimes? Howdja do it!?[/quote]
I had my luxuries turned up between 10 and 20% for a large portion of the medieval years. Not too many turns on 20% though. At one point I had something like 14 unhappy faces in my capital because of the war(s) and 20% luxuries brought me about even in happiness. I still had a lot of the game with some cities here or there with red frown faces showing on the main screen. I think military power was a large chunk of the score, wasn't it? If thats so, my military was mighty for most of the game and was gluttonously-mighty at the end with all those cav units. I could post my save game publicly if you guys would like to take a look at how things went. At the end turn, I had something like 70 cav as a guess rolling up on the Native Americans. It was interesting to finish that game so early that only a few cities had gone away towards the new world and caravels were the mightiest sea vessel and cavalry was the mightiest land unit, which only I had, I think.

I did have the pyramids and representation, so my 6 (?) biggest cities did get the extra smiley face boost. That helped on war weariness too.

It seems like if you're heavily war wearied with the Aztecs, for example, and the French declare war on you... if you then make peace with the Aztecs, your unhappy faces start over with the new war with France. It seems like the old war's unhappy faces are applicable only to that one civ. So, having one civ fight you, then another, then another isn't necessarily so bad.

[quote]Point 5: I would also like to know how your economy was able to withstand Eternal War.[/quote]
Well, the pyramids as well as representation helped a lot, plus the civic that gives a free specialist per city. If you have 20 or 30 cities, that one free specialist per city adds up very quickly with representation and +3 science per (before libraries and all).

I didn't mention this before, but my money and science ended up benefiting highly and raked in a lot of money from founding Buddhism and having the special building (and spamming missionaries early in the game), plus taking the Jewish special building from Justinian and the Hindu special building from Brennus. In the few peace years here or there in between, I spammed missionaries to help fund my nation. Those 3 religions were everywhere, so the money helped a lot. That and taking 200 gold on average maybe for taking a city helped sometimes. I ran with a negative income science slider a LOT this game. Plus, during several tech researches, I told all my cities to emphasize commerce a lot, which seemed to drop the turns needed for research almost in half sometimes. Playing with your governors like that can be an underestimated part of this game, in my opinion. Seems like I tend to either emphasize production or commerce in most of my games and usually both at different times. If you haven't played with that, in some game when you have mega-turns to research a new tech, try to tell all your cities to emphasize commerce and watch how many turns fall off the research time. (CTRL click on a city name on the main map, which selects all cities, then emphasize commerce).

[quote]Point 2: I really think "no tech trading" = "royal ba****d mode"[/quote]
I think you might be right. You (Leo) mentioned that earlier and I almost think this game proves it. lol.

As far as a new GOTM, someone mentioned before that they would prefer not to have permanent alliances on "again." I think its nice to change things up a bit. Thus the bigger map and the advanced start this time. I'd agree that it might be nice to dump that feature for a month or two since we've had that one on so often. I 2nd that suggestion.

*edit*
[quote]I'll be downloading this one to play myself.[/quote]
Please let us know how you did. :)

RE: January BTS GOTM

mongoose201 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:52:10 GMT

I think we'll want to stay away from the Huge maps to be a bit more inclusive of those with computers that have trouble with the larger maps, but I'll be downloading this one to play myself.

Thanks :)

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:00:25 GMT

In case there is a need for a file for a new GOTM, or if someone just wants to play a decent map, here is a Sumeria, Huge Terra map I have played up to about 0 AD.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Leo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:23:33 GMT

Point 1: Those are the most awesometastic troops I've ever seen...and I thought the Greek 5-star units were good I kept seeing walking back and forth across my lands. 8-star...wow.

Point 2: I really think "no tech trading" = "royal ba****d mode"

Point 3: Lost in Translation...as a character sketch, I suppose it's okay. But I like things to HAPPEN in my movies. Nothing EVER happened...and the last line of the movie is whispered so you don't know what he says. It *was* my Worst Movie Evar, until UV came out.

Point 4: Congratulations, NC, that's...incredible...just amazing.

Point 5: I would also like to know how your economy was able to withstand Eternal War.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:56:32 GMT

I thought number of happy people was the main thing that gave score. If you are at war all the time, I'd think you musta had some unhappy peeps sometimes? Howdja do it!?

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:41:32 GMT

40K is a high scoring game too. Nice game. :)

I said I was almost embarrassed to post it. :blush:

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:20:15 GMT

That is INSANE :w00t:

Geeze. Makes my piddly 40K seem like waste of time!

RE: January BTS GOTM

mongoose201 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:20:07 GMT

Holy Crap....

That's a doozy...:w00t:

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:15:45 GMT

Ewww... Mongoose!!! I used to think so highly of you! Then you have to ruin that and not only LIKE Lost In Translation, but like it THAT much! 15 times? Thats like going to a dentist 15 times. Like getting kicked in the crotch 15 times... and LIKING it! :P

Alright, if I don't make time and post my score now, I may not.

Conquest victory in year 1600. I tried to get everyone to fold in the 1500s, but the Native Americans (colony vassal to Zara, I think) was stubborn. He and his mighty 4 cities did not want to stop fighting me and everyone in the world. I had to go load up cavalry in a bunch of galleys and send them to his little island. I took his capital and he STILL woudn't capitulate. Only until I took another of his last 3 cities did he fold. Stubborn man and he made me lose my goal of wrapping it up in the 1500s. :P

Montezuma declared war on me in 1130BC and I didn't get out of war until 1428AD. Hillarious! What is with this particular game? I had peace between 1428AD and 1518AD, when I had so many cavalry it wasn't funny. Okay, a little funny. I crushed Zara, then on to Washington, who folded after 3 turns, maybe and 3 cities. Then on to the other guys, who folded quickly. I built 70 cavalry and had 22 other units upgraded to cavalry. 92 cavalry units. It was obscene. :P I got the Native Americans to fold in 1598, but of course the victory didn't kick in until 1600.

Score 181,398. Oh my. I didn't think a score that high was possible. I guess finishing so darn early was a gem.

I'm attaching a screen shot of my capital and its 9 Great Generals. I wasn't that far from 10, actually. It was tempting to wait another 20 turns or so after Fascism for the free general, but that would be just to stat-jack.

RE: January BTS GOTM

mongoose201 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:53:39 GMT

I have a submission from Scipio that I'll review later, but I need to deal with this now....

I'm not sure if anyone saw it, but Leo is a blasphemer:

[quote]I would rather watch a marathon of Lost in Translation and Ultraviolet than to suffer through another game.[/quote]

Ultraviolet I will agree, but how you can mention a work of art like LiT in the same sentence is beyond my ability to comprehend. Lost in Translation is a freaking masterpiece and I'll not sit by and see it soiled upon in such a fashion.

What the hell are you talking about? It's a perfect story... Aging actor who is unsure where his life has brought him meets a young college grad who is unsure where her life is leading... And it all takes place in a city which has them both utterly confused, leading them to turn to each other to help understand it all. Perfect... And what makes it so great is that if they had met almost anywhere else, say back at home in the States, they probably wouldn't have given each other a second thought.

I bet I've watched that movie 15 times and will probably wear out my DVD at some point....

I'm calm now but the banning stick almost came out...

RE: January BTS GOTM

Zigeuner — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:10:51 GMT

Heh, I submitted a GOTM months ago and ended up being the only one finishing it. Still got the stripes though... ;)

31xp, that's just crazy. Having two healer cavs in the same tile, same thing. :P

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:34:40 GMT

I won the game. My score is so ridiculously high that I'm almost embarrassed to post it. My previously high score in any game I've ever had? Doubled it and then some.

I'll post screenshot and details later.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:04:33 GMT

My general strategy in Civ has always been to be as aggressive as possible, as early as possible. After all, he who seeks peace should prepare for war and all that . . .

Thing is, unlike say C3C, you cannot just crank out a bunch of units. You've got to create a SITUATION in which you can "crank" out "good" units. Meaning, you are sufficiently ahead in Techs, and either have sufficiently productive citie(s) or enough upgrade cash to create a sufficiently large and cutting edge force quickly enough to make use of it.

Everyone can see the power graph. As soon as one AI (say e.g., the French) sees that (e.g., because of a war with the Aztecs) your power is slipping a bit, they'll attack you. Even when they have been your buddy for eons. Its like real life: once you seem to be more juicy of a steak than a fellow cowboy, else when you seem to be getting to big for your britches, they'll attack. If you are ready, you can use Defense to your advantage, cause the AI to deplete its forces, gain little experience, and gain lots for yourself.

In order to create such a situation, you have to create a civilization, with a healthy growing economy, and a viable strategic structure.

My strategy does not always work, and I've only won about three games on Prince now, so I'm certainly not pretending to be the guru or anything. But that is my two cents.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:07:50 GMT

3 postings in a row? Sorry for the spam, but I thought I'd brag a little.

A few centuries ago, these were my MVPs of a big battle with Justinian, Joao & Brennus at the same time:

Unfortunately, I had some more stout units that died in battle, but at one point I looked at the units in that stack and said.. dang... thats impressive... I'm going to take a screen print and share. :P

I crushed Zara and took several cities and got him to capitulate. He's still way ahead on techs, but I've decided to go for a military victory in this game. I have stout units all over the place, so why not?

Here are a couple of my MVPs from crushing Zara. They might be the upgraded version of a couple of those guys up top, but I don't know. I've lost so many beautifully experienced units in this game. "Arrgh... there goes another stained glass window." :P

8 bonuses on each. Impressive, I think. I've never had so many stout units as this game, but then again... I have never fought so much as in this game, I think. lol.

With my 9 Great Generals in Delhi, along with the Heroic Epic and... err... that one National Wonder that I can't recall the name of at the moment... that gives +4 experience per unit... I'm cranking out 31 experience Cavalry from my capital. Brand new and with 31 experience. Wowzers. The world will fall. ;)

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:49:46 GMT

Oh, as a side note, with the massive map and many units to keep track of, I had to turn down my resolution in my game to play without occassionally crashing to black. (Fade To Black by the Rolling Stones comes to mind as I write this. I think I'll pull that up and listen to it, hehe).

I also read on Civfanatics some guy recommending Omega Drivers ( http://www.omegadrivers.net/ ) if you have Nvidia or Radeon cards. I have a Radeon 9600 and installed it and my game has never run so smoothly. It used to be a little choppy as I scroll across a map and such, the bigger...the more chop, but its smooth now. I thought I'd pass that along in case anyone else wanted to try those.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:45:05 GMT

Sorry Leo. :crying:

I'm not sure why you've had so many bad experiences with the games, particularly as of late (this particular game was surprisingly 'war-mongering' for some reason).

I wish I could change your mind or give you some strategy or something, but you seem very frustrated, so I'd recommend taking a break and see if you want to play after a while. Sorry, man.

Anything above Prince difficulty and you're gonna see more war-mongering by the AI, but this particular game, for being Prince, is an odd one. I'm not sure why so many of us had to rumble so much in this one. I'm in the 1500s and have only had a few turns of peace in the A.D. era.

I'd have a couple more suggestions for you, but maybe after some time has passed. If you're interested after a break, please let me know. :)

BTW, Masters of Orion III was the biggest disappointment I've had with games. Not that I play very many. I LOVED MOO II. MOO III sucked.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Leo — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:04:39 GMT

*throws in the towel*

That's it. I can keep going but you know what? Why put myself through the suffering? It's *tries to refrain from screaming* yet another game I've lost.

I had a military of crushing economic levels (I'm talking 5-6 units per city). I had 11 cities, which on this map was doing pretty good. I had survived wars against the Aztecs and the French, but against the juggernaut Byzantines...no. Oh yes, the Byzantines who I had been at peace with forever. My problem? Being next to them.

If you play this game, axe/bow rush everyone around you. Don't research anything. Don't make friends with anyone. Kill, kill, kill...it seems to be the ONLY WAY to win Civ IV...be rabidly antisocial to everyone around you, forget about building, murder them, rape them, burn their cities (oh and get DOZENS of top of the line units as guerillas...yeah that's fun...NOT)

I freaking hate this game.

[quote]So my question is, what got these two civs to join in and later two other civs (Ethiopia and Byzitania) of two comepeltely other religions (Hinduism and Judiasm). All of these civs had terrible relations with civs of other religions. [/quote]

...Because the computer is a (expletive deleted).

....now that I've looked over the other hidden posts, I'm...speechless. How any of you did any good and did not wind up like me and Georges on the bottom of an AI fist-fest, I'll never understand.

Until I got attacked the first time, I thought I was doing great. Once I fended off the French and Aztecs, I was like, okay maybe we'll make it. The Byzantines took three cities and showed no sign of stopping, even though I razed two of their cities.

Oh yes. NEVER EVER RAZE a city...you're only building them a military.

I'm DONE with this game. NEVER going to play again. Ever. I hate this game, I stamp it with a huge THIS SUCKS as bad as Master of Orion III.

I would rather watch a marathon of Lost in Translation and Ultraviolet than to suffer through another game. I may even uninstall it. I don't think I'll buy another game in this franchise until I hear that they've made it not suck.

Yes...yes...I know. It's obviously my fault but I cannot stand this. I've tried to learn it. I've tried to do well. I obviously am too old to learn a new game. Have fun with this, I've fallen off the tech wagon.

*ends his whining sobfest and heads for other places*

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:36:03 GMT

Here's an example of karma. I set up the game with the huge map setting... and now I"m having troubles with it crashing and blacking out. :unsure:

For an update in my game:
[spoiler]Its in the 1500s. I got Brennus to capitulate and pressed my attack on Joao and got him to capitulate. Thats 3 vassals now. Zara started massing huge numbers of troops on the border in the 1500s. It was a real arms race, especially when I noticed Montezuma (Zara's vassal) massing on my border too. I basically switched almost every city to making units and I made a B-line for cavalry. I spent about 5000 gold to upgrade units to cavalry. I guess I was winning the arms race, so Zara declared war on Washington. Several turns later, I decided to attack him as he was weaker now, and Zara is many techs ahead. I'm going to lose to him if I don't press the attack and now that I have cavalry and he doesn't, thats as good as time as any.

But... now my game is crashing. I'll try turning settings down and see what happens. :blush:[/spoiler]

Oh, and I got my 9th Great General. If I can somehow beat Zara to Fascism, I can get a 10th maybe. :P This is... India? What the...?

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:55:56 GMT

Sounds like General Georges had about the same experiences as I did on fighting several civs at once for a long time, but I think I'm coming out ahead on my military battles after a scare or two. What is with this particular game?

I'm not sure on Feb. 14th. I sure don't mind us finishing later. I still think we can start a March game before the Feb. game officially ends. Mongoose?

I love longer games for the higher importance of many things. If you expand too quickly in a normal game for example, I don't think it will bury you, but it can in an Epic or Marathon game (this one is Epic). If you make a couple of military mistakes here or there in a normal game, it isn't the end of the world, but with the longer production times in the longer games, it could be more costly. My War Elephants have been priceless in this longer game with my being at war for the past 1000 years or so. :P The era of things like War Elephants seem to pass too quickly in a normal game, in my opinion.

I have been itching to finish this one. A couple more days until my weekend and I'll have PC access again and can hopefully continue the madness. Fun game.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:46:27 GMT

[quote][b]General Georges (1/29/2008)[/b][hr] . . . I've explored most of the map West of the start location, but basically nothing east. Anything out there I should be looking for?[/quote]

Oh, nothing but El Dorado . . .

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:44:57 GMT

ADDIT: just noticed what Leo said about Feb 14. If that is the deadline that should be enough for me.

Can we get an extension on the deadline to finish this? I'm up to about 1800, and definitely 'winning' but that has taken me countless hours of micro-manage-play, and I am STILL a long way from the numbers I need to get a non-Time win. I get the impression everybody else could use more time too, and it sounds like there are several of us who are enjoying it.

The beauty of Marathon games is how realistic they are. You've got lots of time to build lots of units, and carry out beautiful long-term strategies. But you've also got LOTS of turns to play through, and as you progress they just keep getting more complicated!

RE: January BTS GOTM

General Georges — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:57:06 GMT

OK....so the war versus France was going great when, like I presumed they would, the Aztecs sneak attacked me. I had to put my invasion off Paris to a halt to fight off the Aztecs. My axemen easily cut down their jungle warrior UU. I razed a couple Aztec cities and was aroudn 10 turns away from Feudalism and wanted to just hold off the wars enough for both the French and the Aztecs to capulate. Just a few turns to go and both Carthage (Hannibal) and the Celts (Brennus) declare war on me and send hordes, like tons and tons, of units to attack me. I was now being attacked from both West, North, and East. Most of my units were on my Northern and Western borders, occupied with Aztec and French troops, and my Eastern border was home free from Brenus to sweep through my land a capture a couple cities and my capital. I quickly got peace from the French, but the Aztecs wouldn't listen to any deals I proposed. I managed to get my capital back and ward off the Celtic invasion when out of nowhere the Ethiopian empire, a good friend of mine, decides to take a shot at me now. I was at like +15 with Ethiopia in diplomacy and we were great trading partners and everything, but I guess they wanted in on this fun lol. So I fought off a couple Ethiopian invaders without losing a city. Then, the French decided they wanted back in and declared war on me again. I put up a huge fight, fighting off everyone I could and near the end of the great India's time, the Byzitanians decided to join the fun too.

This was a very interesting game. I've never seen the AI all gang up on one civ like this. I've played at harder difficulties and have yet to see this occur. I must admit, some of the AI strategizing on their placing of units and how they attacked amazed me this game and it was tons of fun...even though I lost. I think that the French or the Aztec got Hannibal and Brenus to declare war on me, but then again, the Aztec and French were Buhddist whereas Carthage and Celtia were Confusist. The Aztecs and the French deeply hated the Carthegians and the Celts. So my question is, what got these two civs to join in and later two other civs (Ethiopia and Byzitania) of two comepeltely other religions (Hinduism and Judiasm). All of these civs had terrible relations with civs of other religions. Maybe Hannibal just scouted out my land with spies and realised I had no real defense (which was my stupid mistake) on my Eastern borders and thats why he attacked with Brennus as his ally.

Anyway, I was completely dazzled by this gang up and also by the amazing millitary strategizing of the AI when it came to attacking and defending. I really enjoyed this GOTM! Was great fun! :hehe:

One more thing. I normally play on normal game speed. I've played many games on Marathon and Epic too, but normal has just stuck to me as my preference. This game might of changed that. By making it longer to build units and buildings, it makes those untis, buildings, and cities all that more valuable since they all have the same movement, attack, benefit, etc., as a faster game speed game.

RE: January BTS GOTM

General Georges — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:00:21 GMT

French just declared war on me...good thing I was already planning for a war with them and was ready to counter it. I've razed many of their cities and now marching onto the gates of Paris! :hehe:

RE: January BTS GOTM

General Georges — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:08:39 GMT

So I started this game last night. So far so good. Been going the peaceful way - but man are the millions of barbs - I should have definately built the great wall. The only good thing from barbs is that I've easily leveled up a lot of units without having to go to war. I plan on taking down the French soon, and maybe the Aztec with them since the Aztec are curently at war with Zara Yakob who is second in points (I'm first). With the Aztecs busy over there and unable to help their good friends the French, the French should fall very easily. I've explored most of the map West of the start location, but basically nothing east. Anything out there I should be looking for?

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:53:42 GMT

Wow. A Dozen at 50 plus. That is a lot.

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:09:22 GMT

Mid 1300s update for me
[spoiler]I now have an 8th Great General in Delhi and am 1/2 way to a 9th. With barracks, stable, & the 2 civics that added unit-experience (the names escape me at the moment), my capital was cranking out some VERY nicely experienced units. I wonder if I will be at war for the rest of this game. Funny that INDIA of all civs, is the one where I have 8 Great Generals. Maybe I can found Fascism and get a 9th or 10th that way.

Justinian was a stubborn dude and would not capitulate. I was really experiencing war weariness badly (16 frowny faces in my capital from war weariness alone). I dropped him down to 3 cities before he capitulated. (He started it! NA NA~) I left Brennus alone for centuries and once in a while he would throw several units away on my 2 neighboring cities which were very stoutly defended. Otherwise, I ignored him. After Justinian capitulated, I have moved some forces to him, but not very many. I hope to drop him a city or 2 and have him capitulate as he was Justinian's vassal just a century ago. Soon.

Joao threw a LOT of units at me and it was costly for me. He actually had me a little scared for a while. I cranked out a lot of units and have taken 3 cities of his and have him reeling as I am steadily advancing on other cities. He is in trouble now...

Zara Yakob is still huge and far more advanced than anyone. He is scarily advanced for the year. I will have my work cut out with him and his 3 vassals (not at war now, though). Surprisingly, I think I'm in 2nd in techs, though several behind him.

On top of having 8 Great Generals so far, I have also had about a dozen units of 50+ experience. I don't think I've had but maybe 1 that experienced in the past, let alone so many in 1 game. I lost a couple of War Elephants taking a city that had over 60 XP. OUCH! That was like 2 stain glassed windows destroyed. I cried. Well, okay, no.
[/spoiler]

Fun game. Jerm, your wars may just be beginning. ;)

I'm once again between work and home, so no PC access until this next weekend.

RE: January BTS GOTM

jerm — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:52:38 GMT

[spoiler]I really thought this game speed would get boring for me but it actually allows you some time to think. I spent the pregame money on Meditation so I could monopolize the two early religions which has worked out well so far. I'm not to the AD's yet and was getting complacent. I plopped a city next to one of France's cities and they almost immediately declared war on me. They levelled the city and sent loads of Swords into my territory. Luckilly I had built up enough axes to keep them off. They stuck to the forests but I laid a trap by setting a huge stack of axes on plains. They attacked and lost every single unit. I then sent my healthy ones and took that frenchy city of theirs I origionally plopped next to. I checked and I have not been expanding fast enough so I'm sending settlers in some of the remaining "empty" areas. My cities are pretty darn impressive though. After my last war I've gone into war mode so we'll see where that takes me. Gonna need to take that French Iron city though. [/spoiler]

RE: January BTS GOTM

Nuclearcow — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:36:39 GMT

Update 1210AD
[spoiler]Holy cow! (little India pun there) I have been at war almost the entire game by year 1210. I have had 7 Great Generals. I didn't start any of those wars. I have never had a city with 7 Generals in it until this game.

I have slowly done well in my battles and have probably about 20 cities. Zara Yakob (spelling?) is a beast though and has 3 vassals already and is huge and far more advanced. Luckily for me, he is fighting other people. I am currently fighting on 3 fronts and my advance has all but stopped. The Portuguese recently declared war on me and attacked me with about 30 units. I had superior units, but against those numbers, I lost a city so far.

I was trying to retake it before bed, but thats what I told myself a while ago, so I think I'd better go to bed. :P This game has been quite a challenge for me and pretty darn fun.[/spoiler]

RE: January BTS GOTM

Scipio Africanus — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:10:31 GMT

I'm at around 1100AD.

[spoiler] Just recently discovered musketmen, and am now racing to found Islam, then Education and liberalism. I built Uni Sankore, Sistine, Parthenon, Statue Zeus, Great Library and a few others. I've had half-dozen wars with neighbors. All of these turned out in my favor, although at least half of them were surprise wars in which I fought from a strictly defensive stance. I've taken away about half dozen cities or so. Moved the capital to be more central long ago, which really did help with maintenance. I have stayed on top of the score graph pretty much continuously, and generally top on most of the others, including power.

My only problem is, being so big I've been constantly right on the edge of having my economy and science bogged down. I'm consistently about 3+ techs behind the leader, and one or 2 behind others . . . although I'm noticing they are racing ahead at the expense of certain side-path Techs.

Still haven't built a single ship! Unfortunately some of my rivals have already circumnativated the globe . . .

Having consolidated most of the land in the 'center' of that starting continent, and having repulsed aggression from most of my rivalrous neighbors I am hoping to settle in to a period of economic buildup and maybe through that and espionage catch up on Techs. Must resist the temptation to use my knights and muskets to take cities from anyone . . . :w00t:

I probably need to found a few more cities too, but must be careful not to overburden my economy. If I can get this empire well-tuned, then I should be able to win. [/spoiler]