Manipulation (C-evo)/Top four/Game reports

(Renamed page in August 2017)
Games of C-evo using the top four "Manipulations", arranged by map specifications.
==230%, 50%==
My Book 39 in Nov 2015. Capital on coast at about 40 degrees south latitude. Space Port and MIR first (then two Engineers) while Settler built city where it was. Nearest three minerals not too far away but two were close to other nations (all standard AI) so I needed bombers as well as staging-post cities. Built ten cities, the first three in 3700, 3650, and 3600, all close to the capital, and the next was called "3250-Mercury" (conveniently on an island within 12 steps of capital). Next came two staging-posts in 3200 and 3100, then in 2750 I built the last two mineral cities and starting finishing the space ship with little interference from enemies, who had only one or two cities each and were therefore no match for my bombers, 6 or 7 of which I was churning out from airports every turn for the last quarter of the game.
Won by 2450 BC, capturing all six cities of five nations along the way (not strictly necessary but the bombers and paratroops had nothing better to do towards the end). I ended with:
*6 Engineers (with no useful tasks left)
*13 basic Marines
*23 basic Airliners
*48 Bombers, designed at about level 18 of Artificial Intelligence, called "1770B-0/177/12.5x2 FanaticBomber". 
Babylonians (not very close to me) had 2 cities and 19 ground units and five ships, clearly top in military strength. Americans had a Town Guard and 18 decent ground units, and with no port they had no ships though they had designed six types. Near the lower end of the military scale were the Egyptians with only 11 decent ground units after fighting Persians and Japanese. Nobody had made peace with anybody.
The nine surviving enemy nations had designed no air units but had each designed generally two or three Marines, Missile Launchers, Transports, and Warships, not building many of each. What a waste of research time! Six of them were researching AI or MT at the end; of the others, none had researched more than 18 future techs. I reached AI 25 and was able to design a powerful warship just for fun: "3792/474/5.5+ Battle Ship". 
-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 12:29, November 15, 2015 (UTC)
:It was quite some time later that I found that the standard AI cannot design air units. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 23:42, August 1, 2017 (UTC)
==230%, 10%==
My Book 38 in late 2015. Capital just south of Equator. Space Port and MIR first. On one of the two biggest islands with four other nations and two rare minerals. Cleaned those enemies up - using basic bombers at first then needing stronger ones as the enemies developed stronger defenders - and fended off attacks from the well-advanced nation that had a nearby island to itself. The other mineral was in two very different places: one on the other big island with several competitors, the other a similar distance away near North Pole. Chose the latter, and most of the time taken was to get a well-defended ship to carry an engineer and three marines, with four bombers for protection during the voyage and the city-building. Win 2100 BC. Might have won sooner with less city growth and more cities so as to attack the big island instead of making the long trek, but would still need a good ship because the big island was much too far for unaided bombers. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 12:29, November 15, 2015 (UTC)
Rerun of that map in August 2017 with more emphasis on having a few marines but initially stronger bombers. New cities appeared in 3650 (2), 3350, 3050, and so on, but earliest captures were in 3500, 3400, 3350, and 3250. Eventually conquered two of the seven nations on the big island and all but one of the other seven. And that north-west Mercury island was accessible by bombers using suitable staging posts (though bombers weren't needed because the half-dozen enemy warships were nowhere near that route), so I didn't build a ship. Victory in 2350 BC, a distinct improvement.
;August 2017
Same specifications as above but very different map. Start away up north, but Uranium was close on my island, the nearer Mercury was only about 26 steps southwest, on an island with four nations, and the nearer Cobalt was south-east of that, another 30 steps, on an island with two nations. 
Marines were enough to gain a foothold on the big island, and its eastern capital was within easy plane ride (2 turns) of one on the small island. A single staging post south-west of my capital therefore let my bombers (1210B) reach both islands. So it was a simple case of "bombers disarm and paratroop drops in" after that. Additional cities on food-rich sites helped produce units along the way. 
Screenshot shows most of the important features:
Near the end, having reached "25 AI", I created the strongest possible : 2712B
Victory 2350 BC.
==70%, 50%==
My book 57. Starting point was almost as far south as it could be, and all rare minerals were a long way off. Two capitals on a smallish southern continent west of us. We were at the southernmost point of the main continent, which snaked around the globe as often happens.
First run took until 2000 BC. 
Second run managed 2500 BC, with only three foreign cities remaining unconquered (and could be taken next turn). Concentrated on Engineers at first (with new cities appearing in 3700, 3600, 3550, 3350, 3150, 3100, 3050, 3000, then two in some turns, overshadowed by captures). Conquered a couple of rivals with just Marines, then made growing use of "1350B" bombers. Final inventory 13 Marines, 44 Engineers (mostly built near the capital and therefore just playing around irrigating), 29 "12AI" bombers, 18 "25AI" bombers (both types having a single spare fuel tank), 11 Spiopters and 38 Airliners (those two types having the standard four spare tanks). 36 cities. Only one enemy had conquered another enemy. Only seven rivals seemed to have produced colonies (one each). We got ten of our spaceship parts from capturing the space ports of two of those, including the one that had obtained its parts by conquest.
-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 13:26, August 11, 2017 (UTC)
==50%, 40%==
;July-August 2017
Very unfriendly starting position for Athens: 3 hills, 6 forest/jungle, 5 unimprovable water tiles, 1 peat swamp, 1 prairie, and just 5 plains (with the settler on one). Settler built. Space Port, MIR, first Engineer. Revolution: Fundamentalism (same as all other nations). Engineers irrigated then cleared forests. Designed basic Marines, Airliners, and Spyplanes then concentrated on AI, designing bombers at level 10.
Cities we built or captured: -3700-SW1, -3550-NE2 (on hill surrounded by mostly desert but with fish and Cobalt), -3400-Washington, -3000?-SW2, -3000-N2, -2950-Persepolis, -2900-Kyoto, -2900-Carthago (with Uranium and Space Port that gave us all its spaceship parts), then by 2600 three more built, then a final splurge of captures: four former capitals and the satellite that had built with Mercury. Final sizes ranged from 4 to 17.
Only about half of the other nations had built any colonies. Only the Germans at 14% had explored more than 7%.
Won in 2450 after taking enemy capital just after its satellite had built two habitation modules.
Final inventory: seven 272/68/3-ArtyFanaticSunTzu-M.L (never fired a shot but a few paradropped spectacularly), two Army of Slaves, eight 204/204-ArtyFanaticMarines (vital for dropping into disarmed cities; seldom if ever did anything else), twenty-two Engineers, sixteen 1210B-0/121/12.5x2-Bomber, six 0/86/12.5x5-Spyplane, and twenty 0/86/12.5x5-Airliner. 
Russia had some 840/168/2.5 ML and 504/504/1.5 Marines. Germany and Rome had 1460/876/5.5 Battle Ship and Transport at 0/1168/5.5.
-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 23:42, August 1, 2017 (UTC)
;August 2017 rerun
Tried again, not going so far with the initial Engineer (so ignoring the cobalt, considering that it will be easier to let Karakorum do the hard work on that) but getting a forest site with access to the same fish and lots of coastal water. Ignored the capitals north and north-west of us (apart from keeping their few units at bay with "AI10" bombers), concentrating on Beijing in the south, the uranium and mercury east and west of it, and Babylon and Karakorum (with its cobalt) further west.
Made the Marines conscripts so that my capital would never want to waste time with an Aqueduct. Managed to capture Beijing with Marines alone when it had only just started to produce Missile Launchers - losing only 3 or 4 of my Marines in a short war. Babylon followed very easily as my bombers had then started rolling out of the factories, as did Karakorum after it had done the hard work in producing six CSCs. My coastal city using the uranium had done its job long before any German ships appeared, and my inland city with mercury was ready to go by 2950 so that victory was declared in 2650.
The greater use of bombers seems to have made the difference. I don't know why I was so wary of Beijing in the first run. Against the standard AI, disarming with bombers followed by paradrops is highly successful. If there are third-party forces around, more preliminary bombing is needed to ensure retention of the captured city.
Final inventory: 14 204/204-ArtyFanaticMarines. 6 Engineers, 16 1210B-0/121/12.5x2-FanaticBomber, 10 0/51/12,5x5-Spiopter, 13 0/51/12,5x5-Airliner. Fifteen cities, including eight that were built by rivals, the first captured being Beijing in 3250, followed by Babylon in 3100 and the important Karakorum in 3050.
==35%,70%==
;August 2017
Good starting position with fruit and a few grasslands. Lakes to south and north, so not too many enemies visited all at once.
Victory in 2800, after capturing one city that gave me all the CSCs then another that had the rest of the parts because its nation had stolen some!
-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 07:55, August 2, 2017 (UTC)
==35%, 35%==
;July 2017
Settler builds where he stands. Space Port, MIR. Share an island with one other nation. Conquered it in 3250 after capturing three more distant capitals - one of which was undefended.
Win in 2800 BC, having captured ten foreign cities and built eight of my own (early ones possibly too close together, competing for food: not all that much need for many early cities).
-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 23:42, August 1, 2017 (UTC)
==35%, 10%==
;August 2017
(Book 59.) Southern start; any further south and the capital's radius would have included an "arctic" tile. But a bonus: Cobalt next to the capital. Space Port and MIR show another bonus: from a future city in my territory I can reach Uranium, which is right next to a rival's capital. So that's where my first Engineer settles, but that rival is a bit slow to get working on the Uranium and my capital is busy making good use of its Military Academy much of the time, so my third city exploits the Cobalt. Clean up the other three nations on the island (with just the Marines - too quick to let them get serious army units) so that they won't distract my neighbour. Eventually I get the four Power Modules from the other exploiter, on a 4-nation island in the north-west, who has got to work on it sooner, and I get one of the early Mercury-exploiters on what was a 2-nation island in the north.
Victory in 3100 BC. Inventory: 7 @ 204/204-ArtyFanatic Marines, 2 Engineers, 7 856B-0/107/12.5x3-FanaticBomber, 2 0/51/12.5x5-Spyplane, 11 0/51/12.5x5-Airliner, and a total of three new cities built (one of them being a staging-post that I ended up not needing) and five captured.
Category:Game reports (C-evo)