Game of the Month 126: September 2011


Game Settings:
Civilization: Mongols
Map: Special map (40x250), round; 7 civ's: Roman, Zulu, Viking, Spanish, Persian, Greek, Mongol
Difficulty: Deity
Barbarians: Restless Tribes
Restarts: On
Victory: Victory by conquest or spaceship

Starting Techs:
~ None

This month we play on a special map designed by Ali Ardavan.

The Romans start with 7 cities and 6 techs, Zulu with 6 cities and 5 techs, ... Mongols (human player) with 1 settler and zero techs.
The techs the Romans have are: Alphabet, Warrior Code, Horseback riding, Code of Laws, Wheel, Ceremonial Burial. The techs other rivals have is a subset of that of the Romans.
No special rules.

Response 92 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=10653505&postcount=92)of "Future GOTM map suggestions" thread has a more detailed description of the map. Good luck and have fun.
Games will be due on Nobember 1st, 2011.


Please be sure to follow the submission guidelines when submitting your game (please do not send your files in a .zip file. Attach them directly to your e-mail with your name in the save file). No extra save is needed.


Please sent the savegames only to civ2gotm@gmail.com.

Have fun.

Starting save is here (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/gotm/gotm126/download/).

http://www.civfanatics.com/files/GOTM_126.jpg

It occurred to me that to make sure I, as the designer of the scenario, have no extra info over others I should be more detailed about who has what techs:

Roman: Warrior Code, Horseback riding, Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws, Wheel.
Zulu: Warrior Code, Horseback riding, Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws.
Viking: Warrior Code, Horseback riding, Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial.
Spanish: Warrior Code, Horseback riding, Alphabet.
Persian: Warrior Code, Horseback riding.
Greek: Warrior Code.

There is something odd about this: When I open the game with the classic version, I can see the AI cities but they don't have names. When I open it with the MGE version, I can't see the cities, however I can get their location by using the "find city"-option. :dunno:

Interesting map, OCC seems tempting but would be waste of Ali's (map-creating) time. ;)

There is something odd about this: When I open the game with the classic version, I can see the AI cities but they don't have names.
This much is standard behavior in a revealed map scenario.
When I open it with the MGE version, I can't see the cities, however I can get their location by using the "find city"-option. :dunno: You are almost always better off playing with classic since diplomacy is all but broken in MGE.

I haven't seen the game and am not participating in this GOTM, but ...
Jokemaster and others,

There is still plenty of time left to play this GOTM. It is due a month from now. Furthermore, despite the fact that the world is very large (10K), this game is not as lengthy as a typical game of this size because:

1. 90% of the world is water.

2. While the other 10% is organized in a manner to allow max number of cities (255), average number of land tiles per city is 4, reducing time consuming land improvements.

3. Due to geography you will have only two cities at the beginning and for quite some time and slow growth for some time after that. This significantly reduces real time.

@Ali: When I said that RL was going to be unusually heavy on me, I was not kidding. I have 2 examinations coming up in the next week or so, but more importantly I have started a student newspaper at my high school, and it takes up a LOT of my spare time.

Been busy, but wanna play again, and this looks more interesting than 127. Do I have time to finish by Nov 1? I can usually finish a normal EC gotm in a few days, but the past 250x ones took me weeks.

Many of us are still playing, though I am expecting to finish this weekend. There is ample time and Magic has always been gracious with extensions. I am looking forward to seeing your results. Please post in the spoiler by -1000.

Been busy, but wanna play again, and this looks more interesting than 127. Do I have time to finish by Nov 1? I can usually finish a normal EC gotm in a few days, but the past 250x ones took me weeks.

From my experience, probably not, but it is a very worthwhile game to play, and I personally wouldn't object if you submitted later (I'm not certain if I'll finish on time anyway). Something to keep in mind is that the AI power and the geography are very different from a normal game, so you are unlikely to fall into a "routine" -- particularly not a routine that you would have in a regular game. Then again, if you have better luck than I did and/or are slightly more savvy diplomatically, you may find your game shorter than mine.

If the deadline is close and you still think you won't be able to finish your game before november the first....let me know and I might give extra time...

How is your own game coming along, Magic? I know you started playing but have not seen anything from you in the spoiler yet.

Thanks. Have decided to give it a try; next posts in spoiler.

Haven't played yet. RL (work) was too busy to play. I hope I can play tomorrow again...

Decided to delay gotm127 and gonna give this one a go... this'll be interesting. I plan on learning ALOT from this scenario haha

Good decision. When you get to -1000 post your log in the spoiler thread and see how others have played up to that point.

-1000 = 1000bc ???

Indeed.

Actually, I had another question about versions. I checked last night and I am running version 5.04 of Multiplayer Gold... I presume this is what people refer to as MGE.

Does this have any bearing on how I play or the scoring system at game's end?

You aren't rewarded or penalized directly in the GOTM by playing MGE. However, the MGE AI is much more hostile to the player than is the "classic" AI, so those with the option usually play classic. I suppose that in some sense this makes MGE harder, but what it really does is reduce the role diplomacy can play in the game.

Read through this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=399193) for information on downgrading MGE to classic. I'm pretty sure that the downgrade "fixes" the AI, but not positive, since I just play from classic directly (it was more for allowing saves to be read, and playing at deity plus levels).

The downgrade does fix the AI, and I play a Classic that came from a downgraded MGE.

Classic is a must have, especially for the games when you start out at a disadvantage when diplomacy is key to survival.

I was too busy to play for about 2 weeks despite having only 2 turns left to play. Yesterday I realized that we are past the deadline already and forced myself to finish up last night. I just submitted. Is there an extension? It seems like several people, Magic included, are still playing.

I had no time to finish my game because of health problems...

I am very sorry to hear that.

I hope all that is behind you now Magic. Welcome back. Give yourself and others some extension.

Don't know if I will finish 126. Still have to create 128. Which will be done one of these days...

Right now I'm ok and can play civ again....

Results (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/gotm/gotm126/stats/) are up. I've added an external link in the archive to download the savefiles of everybody. Please let me know if you can download the (zip)file.

I tried the link and it worked fine in the sense that I could see all the individual submissions. Did not try to open any of the saves though.

I think it's working. You still have to download the zipfile before you're able to load them in civII. But that shouldn't be a problem I think.

Yes, thanks Magic.
Needed a Google login but after doing that, the download, extract and loading of files to Civ2 was all fine.

I've updated The Hall of Fame (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/gotm/hof)