GOTM 72 Pre-Game Discussion

Very sorry for the delay. I'll hold off releasing the game start files for 1 day (midnight starting on Oct 16th) so this thread can be open for a day before the contest starts, and the game will go until Nov 16th.

This month we'll take the difficulty level back down to Warlord! Should be a cake walk ... except for a few surprizes I have for you. Still, I don't think the AI will be much competition. Show no mercy! :)

Civilization: Korea
Rivals: 7
Barbarians: Restless
Difficulty: Warlord
Land Form: Pangaea :p , 70% ocean, Standard map.
Geology: 5 billion years old, Normal, Temperate
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/images/gotm72large.jpg
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/images/gotm72mini.jpg

Conquest-Class Bonuses:

Start with 2 Bonus Spearmen
Start with an extra 50 Gold
Start with knowledge of Pottery



Predator-Class Challenges:

Start without Alphabet
All AI get 2 Bonus Pikemen, and 2 Unit Support for them
Galleys are increased in cost to 40 Shields :mischief:


A reminder: do not post any game information to this thread after you have downloaded the save file. Absolutely no spoiler information for this or any GOTM is to be posted in this thread!

Is there less room on our island than there was in the... Babylon(?) Warlord game?

Don't want to lose the BG - looks like a distinct lack of food. But there's not much room from the looks of it! S to settle on the hill, make a bit more room, keep the BG.

SE to Hill sounds fine. Both BG and Fish must be exploited in order to get us off the rock ASAP.

We have three Forests to cut after the BG has been improved. For what should we use the 30 shields?

Looks like this will be the first game in my life, where I'll actually perform a pallace jump... :)

Or should we play this as a One-City-Challenge...? "Robinson Crusoe" would be an adequate title for this one! I wouldn't be surprised, if civ_steve has put quite a gap of deep ocean between us and the main continent, so we might loose many settlers on suicide galleys?! But there's not enough production & resources on this island for playing this game in OCC style until we get to caravels!

And this may also be my first game ever, where I'll move my settler on the first turn... But using the BG during the first 10 turns seems to be essential here.

Looks like this will be the first game in my life, where I'll actually perform a palace jump [...]
And this may also be my first game ever, where I'll move my settler on the first turn

GOTM is there to teach, and the game is there for all its facets to catch light.

But who said it's an island or how big or small it is? It could well be a peninsula, which could be attached to an island, a continent or the pangea.

At least three quarters of civ_steve's games had the starting location on a peninsula.

But who said it's an island or how big or small it is? It could well be a peninsula, which could be attached to an island, a continent or the pangea.

At least three quarters of civ_steve's games had the starting location on a peninsula.

Yes, that's right, we can't say for certain that we are on an island just by what can be seen in the screenshot. However, I was not so much referring to the screenshot, but rather to some of civ_steve's comments:

"Should be a cake walk ... except for a few surprizes I have for you."
"Land Form: Pangaea :p "
"Galleys are increased in cost to 40 Shields :mischief: "

Well, I would say, either civ_steve is trying to fool us all, or galleys are indeed going to be very important in this game!

But anyway, based on my experience with the three GOTMs I've played so far, I'm sure civ_steve has set up a highly interesting game for us again!

Lanzelot

I expect a long monkey's tail of mountains to cross before we can reach more fertile lands.

If I play, I will not go predator. The chances of compensating the loss of Alphabet seem very reduced if our guesses are half right.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but does the mis-spelling of "surpises" as "surprizes" imply that we have bonuses in store for us?

Anyway, if we are on a rock with no view of the mainland and no neighbours, I propose... Predator Galley Challenge, i.e. the winner is the player with a galley built in the earliest interturn. And playing predator of course. :p

mis-spelling of "surpises" as "surprizes"

And what is then the interpretation of this one?

Predator Galley Challenge

I'm in!

Warlord...I LOVE IT. I don't care what surprizes are in store. Been waiting for a warlord game for awhile. SWEET! Settling on the hill. Palace Jumping is a great possibility. I love the low level, but challenging games. Man, midnight can't come soon enough.

I think I'd send the worker N to check out the land as much as possible.

Yeah, Predator Galley Challenge looks like a good strategy. Sea travel does seem rather emphasized in the opening post.

Just another possibility: Lots of barbarians on our land. They are restless, and that could be an unpleasant surprise. Though not too much so since this is Warlord with a big bonus against them. Still, it could be an inconvenience in settling the northern part of the landmass.

Or maybe it is a peninsula, and there's an AI very near us with a city on a hill at a chokepoint and those two bonus pikemen. They won't last too long on Warlord, but certainly long enough to cause us considerable trouble in expansion, particularly if our hill lacks Iron, which I have a sneaky feeling it does.

Been so long since I played Warlord. It'll be nice to play at a lower level - I think!

I really hope that we're not separated by everyone else by a big ocean, since it will make this whole game depend too much on chance. We can influence how early we build galleys, but if they need to go on suicide runs then everything beyond that is pure chance.

I'll play predator, and will join the challenge.

Don't see much reason to hurry a granary - building a barracks might do more for increasing settlements in the early game, assuming there is at least one AI in the vicinity. Iron on the hill would be nice, but that's a long build and a likely disappointment, whereas a few archer vets are a good bet to grab a settlement or two. Might be that the only settler(s) I build in the capital will be the one(s) preceding its abandonment.

I'm betting it's an island, or we are on the far end of a big C.

I just played a 60% water pangea, and one civ started on a crappy island and the mainland was essentially 3 continents - the right was connected to the center via 1 hex land bridge, the left connected to the center by a 10 hex landbridge.

It's always a surprise how I'll spell surprize! :)

Good discussions - I'm glad I delayed a day for the start. The game files are loaded up, so we should be live in just over an hour. Happy civving!

I've seen far ends of pangea's, too - I remember the first COTM I tried - the Emperor Iroquois one. Big C, horses werent' right there, and we were next to Rome :rolleyes:

Good discussions - I'm glad I delayed a day for the start.

How about going back to the old scheme, where the pre-game discussion started three days before the game release?

Maybe this will be one of those "Moses" games where it's best to wander for 40 turns to find the nice start. ;)

I´m wondering - if the visible land is all there is, might it be better not to settle on the hill in order to squeeze in 3 instead of 2 towns? Would that be worth it at all? It would mean we´d only have one tile with more than one food per turn.
:hmm:

The hill might be best in any case.

Gets the BG and the fish right off, which are the only 2 food tiles around. And the extra shield for the hill won't be available for a long time anyway.

mis-spelling of "surpises" as "surprizes"
And what is then the interpretation of this one?

Touché. :cringe:


When the settler reaches the hill, it should be able to see whether or not there is a land tile 3NE of the start. Also, bear in mind that there might be a whale to be had by settling on the bg, which should make up for the loss of the bg if we have to run to Mapping. If we do have only 7 land tiles, then settling the bg and two other towns supports 7 citizens, while settling the hill and one other town only allows 6 citizens.

Anyway, if we are on a rock with no view of the mainland and no neighbours, I propose... Predator Galley Challenge, i.e. the winner is the player with a galley built in the earliest interturn. And playing predator of course. :p
I got no time to play the whole game (I guess) so this quick PGC is the right way to get something out of it!

Count me in!

(Too bad I will have no chance to waste my GA to win this race... :rolleyes: )

*cough*14thtoday*cough* :mischief:

I think you'll find it's the fifteenth!:)
It all depends on how you look at it...

Now it indeed is the 15th. And still no pregame thread up. :sad: