Lets start this ball rolling a little early this month so that all of the professional Odds makers can start taking bets on what they think Gotm20-Spain will look like.

We have several major announcements to reveal to you this month and also want to make plans on opening the pregame strategy discussion a few days early to allow for a few more pregame discussion opportunities.

So lets see how many players have honed their "Cracker prediction skills" to a new level. What are the features that you feel have been disigned into Gotm20 and what are some of the things you may be doing to prepare for the game.

Since many of you have already memorized what you think the AI's next moves will be, let's see if you can use what you know about the mind of Cracker (as supported and advised by the illustrious GOTM staff) to accurately predict what Gotm20 will look like.

If you were looking to invite one or two new players to join in playing this next GOTM what would be some things that you would recommend that these new players do to get the most enjoyment and benefit out of the upcoming game experience.

Good luck and have fun!!

My guess is that it will be a Deity game.:)

Perhaps a reasonable amount of water about, with a civilized and competitive old world, and an untamed new world ripe for colonising by the most enterprising civilization.

Perhaps the new world will have savage inhabitants plus Aztecs and Iroquois who have some limitations on how advanded they can develop. We saw something of AI civs that are a little out of the ordinary in game 19, so I am sure Cracker & team can tweak the settings to produce some interesting AI behaviour.

Certainly Emperor or Diety to keep it quite challenging (or even damn near impossible for an amateur like me... but I am sure to learn something new again regardless.)

Rules for new players - think carefully and think ahead. Plan where you want your cities to be and why. Take your time.

Deity is a good guess. Since our UU is the Spanish Missionary (aka conquistador), we need somethig to reach after navigation. It might be something like the imperialism map, with key resources on another continent.

PS: No diety, please. :D

Tao's speculation also dovetails perfectly with Spanish history and its use of the UU, so I think a neo-imperialism map is a strong possibility. The advantage would lie in the UU's ability to locate resources in the interior more quickly than others. Given the timing - late Middle Ages - I would guess that these resources would be aminly luxuries, although coal is a possibility.

If Moonsinger is right about the game being at deity level, then I would expect the sort of elbow room provided in the Ottomans game, to better allow the Spanish to hold their own. This could be achieved with a start just like the Ottomans, with no one competing for the rich territory north of the starting spot. The argument against this is that it would duplicate the last game. A different way to achieve the same result would be to alter the recent tendency of over-crowding the map by having a less-than-standard number of civs. This way the Spanish could be placed in a more central location, where exploration could lead to a few more tech trades before falling behind, without getting squeezed by their initially bigger neighbors.

I also expect much weaker neighbors than the recent homelands of the Gallic Swordsman, Mercenary, Hoplite, Legionnaire, and Mounted Warrior. Not India, for obvious reasons, but maybe France and England, with whom the Spanish can profitably trade techs. One aggressive civ like Germany or Russia, but not both right on the border. Another possibility is a neighbor that ignores culture - say the Zulu or Rome - so that the Spanish religious trait could have some impact in the early going... but this is probably too circuitous to occur.

I wouldn't mind betting on two Archipeligo groups. One for Spain, England and North Africa, and the second for the Americas. The two would need Navigation to gain contact. When they do Spain and the other Civs in that Archipeligo would be technologically advanced.

So, Deity is a good guess, but I have a sneaking feeling we might also start with a pre-popped settler. It may also be the case that one or more Civs near the Spanish could start with an additional tech. I would also guess that there will be a lot of scientific civs near the spanish at the start.

I am quessing Deity too, since the difficulty has been raised now monthly.

gotm 17 - regent

gotm 18 - monarch

gotm 19 - emperor

( gotm 20 - deity ? ;) )

Spanish are commercial, so i'm guessing we'll start in a terrain containing lots of rivers, bonus food and plenty of room for expansion (commercial = less corruption).

As i recall they were also religious, so cracker might have not given Spanish lot of Luxury resources, thus forcing them to build the cheap temples to keep population happy in larger cities.

I like the idea of two large continents to represent the old world and the new... with an archipelago/island in between belonging to the English. With no EW crossing of course :)

As for advice to new players... reading winner's timelines from recent GotM, Cracker's quick start articles and Bamspeedy's Deity settlers.


regards


Ted

Originally posted by TedJackson

As for advice to new players... reading winner's timelines from recent GotM, Cracker's quick start articles and Bamspeedy's Deity settlers.


I couldn't agree more. It worked for me! (I think) :crazyeye:

Originally posted by mad-bax
I wouldn't mind betting on two Archipeligo groups. One for Spain, England and North Africa, and the second for the Americas. The two would need Navigation to gain contact. When they do Spain and the other Civs in that Archipeligo would be technologically advanced.



Yes for the two archipelog groups but i would put
- England / France / Portugal & ... Spain
- Aztecs / Iroquois / America ?

Then Spain would commercial & religious with some facilities to build caravel cheaper because they had a massive fleet at the time.

I fear deity level. The few times I have tried I was badly beaten & hopeless

PS : Where can I find Bamspeedy Deity settler thread

Originally posted by CdB
PS : Where can I find Bamspeedy Deity settler thread
Here you go:
Tutorial: Babylon's Deity Settlers (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_deity_settlers.shtml)

regards

Ted

Originally posted by CdB

PS : Where can I find Bamspeedy Deity settler thread

Try this link. (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_deity_settlers.shtml)

Whoops - Cross posted :D

Once again the moon had come full circle, and the hour of Prediction was near. Leaving his Gallic warriors asleep in the camp, Ambiorix retreated into the misty forest, carefully holding what seemed to be a round object, covered by a cloth.
In a clearing near a small stream he sat down. A blue-greenish haze rose from the water, and the moon peeked from behind the clouds when he uncovered the magic object : a large crystal ball, with an '18' written on it in frosted glass.
His muscles became tense as he concentrated and peered into the ball - it seemed to contain marble slivers that obstructed the view, but as he peered harder, they seemed to dissolve and an image was appearing. Ambiorix didn't dare clear his throat or make a sound as the image became clearer and clearer - it was the map of GOTM 20, but at first too far away to see any details. then the image came closer and closer and revealed...

... nothing but FOG units !

Aahaaaargh ! Ambiorix rose in frustration. The ball would not help him, he realised. He laid down near the stream, using the ball as a neck-rest and started to think. How would GOTM 20 be like ? He'd better come up with something good, he realised.



Let's see what we have to base our prediction upon : previous GOTM's, about 2000 years of Spanish history, and a very subjective impression of Spanish culture - okay, could be worse.

History first : most important events that come to mind are :
- isolated location due to natural borders (sea, Pyrenees)
- the reconquista : battling the Moors out of the peninsula.
- the discovery of America right thereafter (1492), in search of trade/luxuries
- the incredible wealth that came from the new lands : tons of gold and silver, which they used mainly to build castles. I'm not a history expert, but apparantly a common saying was that the Spaniards had found a way to 'turn gold into stone'. Add to that the general attitude that the spanish rather liked paying for having something build, rather than building it themselves.
- the forging of an empire where 'the sun didn't set'.
- wars with all possible civilizations for colonies (against France in Louisiana, against the Americans in Cuba, against Portugal and the Aztecs in S-America, ...) and within Europe.

The previous GOTM shows that Cracker can be quite creative in setting up starting units, AI-traits and map-conditions, so if we blend all the above in one soup we get (drums) :

a hot, wet, half-continents-half-archipelago deity-game where Spain is on a large island or small continent with only one other civ. this might very well be the Arabs (nice for the civ3 and Mac players), but I'm rather betting on the agressive Zulu. I somehow have a feeling that something special will be done with the starting location : an extra settler, or two settlers at different, distant locations, to create an instant-colony. Don't know if the latter is technically possible but it would be quite something if it were - just imagine the pregame discussion on whether the capitol and palace should go to the first or the second settler ! Im also guessing the starting location has flood plains, plains and mountains.
In any case, the extra settler and isolated oponent would help lesser mortals (like myself) to stay alive at this level. :)

From the starting island it will be possible to reach small isolated islands (Azores, Canary islands, Madeira, Baleares, ...) and do some island-hopping to the big promised land, covered in gold and luxuries (and jungle), where we meet a crippled Aztec population, or a barbarian one. The island hopping could be done by literally reaching one island after another, or via shallow waters (sea-tiles or even coastal-tiles) where a suicide galley/galleon could rest.
On another contintent are our other opponents (perhaps Americans, Germans, French, English and some others to balance civ-traits and UU's), also hopping-mad to go island-hunting.
Spain might also be at the 'right' of the map, so searching for luxuries eastwards would get us to the west (confused yet ?).
If a civ is modded, it might be the English, who could provide a swarm of privateers (mimicking the pirates that attacked the silver-fleet, and maybe also a hint to the sinking of the Armada).
If Spain gets an extra unit, it would be the inquisator, who would somehow enhance the chance of a cultural flip.

On a less serious note :
- the surrounding sea will be teeming with fish, aching to jump into a paella
- the game won't let you play between noon and 4 PM
- Every now and then a dialog will pop up with 'I want some tapas' or 'I want some sherry', after which you have to type that word to continue. If you don't, three guys from Monty Python will barge through the door, dressed in spanish inquisition clothes screaming... <and now YOU continue....>

Game difficulty: I believe it will be emperor again, because gotm19 was more like an emperor training game. Everything you possibly could ask for (luxuries, resources, weak neighbours) was right there. So I would think a real emperor game with a more difficult starting position.
2 clusters of archipelago could be, with an ocean in between so one needs navigation for crossing.
Map size probably large with lots of water.

I guess it will be a beyond deity game and only 10 players will win it. I hope to have at least one bonus resource and one lux nearby. I also hope the game would be less modded that the current one.

Think that the Arabs might be very close to Spain and we'll have to race to get the good lands before them. Maybe a game with no rivers/ lakes nearby to draw irrigation from 10 squares away.

What about a strange shaped map, with Gibraltar and the new world?

I concur with Ronald about this being a more difficult Emperor level game, using GOTM19 as training. I also agree agree with the others, that there will be 2 worlds separated, so that we need to discover navigation and hopefully our UU becomes valuable.

I predict our world may have a large set of mountains separating us from our neighbors and some good luxes. But the real good stuff is probably across the ocean, so we will be building our Navy and having our way with the world, unlike GOTM19, where many players never really built many ships.

I'm guessing a dryish start, based on Spanish geography, and possibly a position isolated by mountains from the rest of the starting continent (same reason). I anticipate lots of commercial and/or expansionist civs, to give the Spanish competition in settling and taming new lands.

There should be at least some lands that are not accessible until navigation, and these lands should be inhabited either by a backward civ, or by no-one at all -- making the game in part a race to settle them --- and be rich in luxuries and and natural resources.

I anticipate little trouble with land barbarians, but possibly some beefed up sea units beyond the squid to represent pirates.

Renata

Originally posted by Renata
I'm guessing a dryish start, based on Spanish geography, and possibly a position isolated by mountains from the rest of the starting continent (same reason)...
Renata

That was my thinking too Renata. I wouldn't be at all suprised to see a Plains start with no close river.

For other Civs, I would pick 7 out of these;-

England (VERY surprised if they are not in it!)
Ottomans OR Arabs
France OR Keltoi
1 of America, Iroquois OR most likely Aztecs
Carthage
Japan
Minoan (wild card entry)

Land mass would be continents rather than Pangaea. Maybe 4 separate land masses. Nearest luxury will be wine, iron and horses should be close but we might need a bit of early conquest for Saltpeter and later strategics.

Difficulty level; given the non-river start and need for early Navigation, I would say Monarchy most likely.

What I'm guessing is this:

1) Spain will start on a continent that will contain the other European colonial powers nearby (France and England) but separated by rough terrain or water. The Arabs, perhaps restricted in some way, will also be nearby.
2) That maybe Germany, Ottomans, Russia, India, and China will be farther away (Columbus was trying to get to India/China remember?).
3) That another continent, reachable only after Navigation (when conquistadors are available)/Magnetism, that will contain the Aztecs and Iroquois who will have their tech, especially naval, stunted in some way.
4) The Aztecs and Iroquois will be separated by and extensive jungle to prevent one from conquering the other before the Europeans arrive
5) Neither iron or horses will be found in "America."
6) Most luxuries will either be in "America" (furs, gems, wine), India (ivory) or China (silks, spices, dyes, incense).

I wonder if Cracker already has this game setup or likes to read everything in our discussions and says" Hey, that's a good idea" or better yet," Ha, they all think this, so i will be sure to give them the opposite:eek:

Either way, it is fun to play.

I do like the idea though of having a land mass with no civs, maybe with wild barbs running around that need to be "tamed" that has lots of gold and goodies, that is only accessible with Nav.

Credit below to Nightfall:

The first posting of the GOTM 20 start

[Cracker-muttering]
I'll show em....I want this...no bonus grasslands..whine whine.....want more of the start...I'll give 'em a start....
[/Cracker-muttering]

[Cracker-evil laugh]
Bwahahahahahahahaha
[/Cracker-evil laugh]





For all concerned, THIS IS A JOKE...this is NOT the GOTM 20 start (some ppl are too serious )

i would say it will be deity, cause we haven't had that difficulty level since december. it will be a large map with only 80% landmass. spanish side of the world will be archipeligo and the other side will be the 'new world' that we will need navigation to get to. there will be 3-4 enemies close by in the archipeligo and one left all alone on the large continent.

The starting area will probably be plains, with a good deal of hills and mountains nearby. If there is a new-world continent or archipelago, I think that the civs in it won't have access to any horses. A quick strike with Knights or Cavalry upon discovery of the could be devastating to them if this is the case. I also think that any such area will probably have a lot of commerce-boosting resources and opportunities.

Nakhimov, the "no horses in the New World" notion is inspired. It also dovetails perfectly with the Spanish UU.

So far I have identified one consistent theme with Cracker's games. His theme is GOTM as a history lesson, or at least changes that are relevant to history. This shows up in something as simple as renaming the Ottoman capital to match historical naming better. The question is how will this affect us?

Spain had several strong naval rivals to compete with to head overseas. That means England will be in the game as they are naval heavy. Carthage Scandinavia, Japan and Greece are already oriented to naval building. Two of them will be selected to act like Portugal and / or Holland. This could be one landmass with just 4 deity civs that is a bit scary with aggressive Japan and Greece.

The other continent will have one of more key items for the long-term game and getting to that continent will be critical. There is a good chance that all oil or rubber will be on the other land area. My predicted civs are the two historical of Aztecs and Iroquois. No guess on the third civ.

My biggest worry is that it is deity and the eqWorkers appear for the AI civs. Deity is difficult enough with out helped out the AI. I just hope we don't get another GOTM#14 and sharing a landmass with a single deity AI. That IMHO is the single worse scenario to face in deity. The best thing that can happen is several deity wars while you quietly build to a position of strength.

However, I am not sure if this will be deity. I thought I remember a post of regent, 2 monarchy, 2 emperor and 1 deity. That would put the next deity into June. I don't like the Spanish for deity as you lose the explorer that is good for 20-shield partial rush. Partial rushing is very valuable at deity and the weak UU doesn't justify the loss of the only 20-sheild unit.

originally posted by LKendter
I thought I remember a post of regent, 2 monarchy, 2 emperor and 1 deity.
Since the new GOTM website started keeping track there has been 1 regent (17 Carthage), 2 monarch (15 Russia/18 Keltoi), and 2 emperor (16 Rome/19 Ottomon). So I would predict a Deity game as well, probably continents along the "old world" vs. "new world" line of thinking. There might be at least 1 strong civ alone on its own island which still has early contact with the "old world" continent (ie England or Japan) since these types of civs always provide a challenge for conquest victories.

Edit: Maybe the two landmasses will be connected by a sea lane to enable caravel crossings a la Cristobal Colon (I have no idea on the spelling ;) ).

Originally posted by Zwingli
Since the new GOTM website started keeping track there has been 1 regent (17 Carthage), 2 monarch (15 Russia/18 Keltoi), and 2 emperor (16 Rome/19 Ottomon). So I would predict a Deity game as well, That was also my thinking. OTOH 7 was deity, 14 was deity, and cracker is a very organized person ..... :p

Deity seems likely (I said it a few days ago).

Given Spanish history and the fact that Navigation is the required tech for the UU, I think we can expect to see 2-3 continents (and squid and FOG).

We haven't been offically introduced to the Arabs yet, in terms of GOTM, so I don't think we'll see them unless they are the barbarians of the month (I think the Moors are more likely than the Arabs in that role).

If Cracker goes ahistorical, we might see the Aztecs early (Cruel would be Deity with Aztecs 4 tiles away...and with early extra units) or to play off of Nakhimov's idea...what about Hiawatha controlling all the horses?

I will name one of my explorers Juan Ponce de Léon, and send him on a quest to find the mythical Bonus Grassland Cow. :)

I would like to see a backwards new world continent, or else the conquistador would never see any use.

I think we'll see this with the Aztecs and Iroquios and/or a horde of placed barbs to keep them down, in addition to making any landing from the old world more difficult. With that in mind, I expect to see England, France and maybe some others nearby with a predisposition to seafaring, otherwise this new world would just be there for the taking by human players. Which of course isn't much of a challenge. I think it will be diety or at least emp, to also make it challenging to be the first to colonize that untouched fertile land of the new world.

I'll name my first suicide galley Leif Erikson and look for a northern island hopping route. Since the Vikings aren't slated to show up yet (but here's hoping) this is the best I can do.

Originally posted by tao
Deity is a good guess. Since our UU is the Spanish Missionary (aka conquistador), we need somethig to reach after navigation. It might be something like the imperialism map, with key resources on another continent.

PS: No diety, please. :D

I agree with this. This would go well with historic perpective, which cracker seems to like....
Like Yndy I also hope this game will be less modded, so there'll be no handicapped civs like Rome in GOTM19....

I don't care about much except give us the Jason calculator up front and don't play games .... if there ain't gonna be any shield grassland under the forests and jungles tell us up front.

Its supposed to be strategy not a crapshoot.

My bets:

- Deity level

- 2 land masses with several small islands. That would represent the conquest part and the race for every land

- the small islands contains most of the luxuries. guess why ;)

- Spain as religious and militaristic as they were in the history

- I would like to see a water unit as the UU in this game. A frigate or some sort (the spanish synonim for that) would be perfect for Spain

- Other civilizations as England, France, Germany, China, Aztecs, Iroquis, Americans, and probably Russia and Zululand as well.

- Im expecting a lot of alliance warfare!

- would be an interesting idea if the "european landmass" contains the luxuries and the "american landmass" contains the resources or balance it somehow that one side have something the other side doesnt.

- Goldmines in the "american landmass" definitely ;)

Originally posted by Darkness

Like Yndy I also hope this game will be less modded, so there'll be no handicapped civs like Rome in GOTM19....

OT: Except that I believe that the Romans were too powerful (until Siphai) :).

Since I plan to have a lot of free time in June (I wonder what my boss thinks about that), I’ll use a lot of personalization. I’m considering naming every unit built before 1000BC (Miguel the Warrior), zoning the territory into 72 tiles areas named after Spanish provinces (Andalusia) and creating a bureaucracy with written policies and stuff (“The objective of our happiness policy is to hook up the dyes within the following 20 turns”).

Which reminds me: Maybe we’ll get the luxuries and resources in Spanish like in the Rome game (tinturar, marfil, piel, hierro).

Originally posted by Yndy
I’m considering naming every unit built before 1000BC (Miguel the Warrior)

How do you do that? Is this a new feature in PTW or something? It would be so much easier to keep track of them for the QSC if I know how to rename all my units.

Moonsinger

<shift> N when you have a unit selected allows you to rename them. Not sure if that is new to PTW or not. Very handy for the QSC!

Originally posted by rabies
Moonsinger

<shift> N when you have a unit selected allows you to rename them. Not sure if that is new to PTW or not. Very handy for the QSC!

Thank you very much!:) I didn't know that.

//Edit: It must be a new feature in PTW because I just tried it in Civ3 and <shift> N does nothing.

@Yndy: I meant handicapped because cracker said the Roman governors had wonder productions switched off. In my game they were also quite strong, miltary and culture-wise...

I agree with most that it will probably be deity. If it follows history it will be a pennisula with Romans on one side and Arabs on another with Carthage within a boat ride. Carthage gets soupped up navally. Lots of mountains around the perimeter of the pennisula for natural defense. France and Germany over the mountains and a new world that is somewhat held back either by jungle, barbs, lack of food bonus, river but lots of luxuries.

The important question is not the symantics but what experiment Cracker has cooked up.

GOTM16 - Introduced the regionally intense barbs (new world?)
GOTM17 - ???
GOTM18 - Lack of rivers, luxuries -> low research
GOTM19 - {Trying to avoid spoiler} A Civ in under a belljar.

Basically we've been taught to expect the unexpected and yet still find ourselves trapped in preconcieved notion of how the game should function.

If this is going to be Deity, there are some preconcieved notions and some potential Cracker, "rock your world" modifications:
"Researching yourself will be hopeless" - maybe we'll start with all the luxuries and rivers, the AI get none.
"Early conquest futile because of the numbers advantage" - maybe eqWorkers will REPLACE the extra military units the AI gets.
"Building ancient age wonders is impossible." - All the AI have their governer's set to not build wonders.
"The AI expand until they run out of room." - Few civs on large map with extra military units at the start.

Originally posted by ControlFreak
GOTM17 - ???

The luckless suicide galley. Not to be confused with the "Suicide Squid" :lol:

Ted

EDIT: GOTM17 - not many players choose an archipelago map with 80% water so the experiment was learning the differences in terms of tech choices, troop movement, contact and tech brokering, emphasis on naval. And yes, higher than expected galley losses.:(

I've noticed a trend in the last 2-3 GOTMs.....whereby we seem to always be up against the civs we recently played as....so I'll just throw out that I fully expect that the Ottomans, Celts, Carthage..and perhaps even Rome will be in the game again.

I'm playing a game right now from one of the standard template senarios that come with Civ III or PTW. It is a Huge Earth map and I started with the Spanish on Emporer level (even though it started me on England). The game has 12 or so civs with all the European civs always fighting each other on the Euro/Asia continent and the lonely Iroquios have all of North and South America to themselves.

The Spanish have wine as the closet lux, while the Americas have the dyes, silks, diamonds and especially spices (islands) all over the place.

This game seems to parallel what many have thought or suggested in their posts. I will, of course, probably win this game, and Cracker's will be similar and I will get crushed on his version.

If it's diety, well, I guess we need one sooner or later.
:cry:

Originally posted by scubagtr
If it's diety, well, I guess we need one sooner or later.
:cry:

I suspect it could be later because GOTM 19 was a weak emperor game as Keltoi & Hannibaline were weak civ allowing a somewhat easy conquest of one continent.

It it is archipelago with large water. challenge will be difficult enough on emperor

Add this to the speculation mystery:

We are given an optional graphics to load:
Leaderhead: Spanish/Hispanic

Since we are spain, why do we need an Hispanic leader? It this a hint about a new civ to appear?


=================

I retract my earlier guess that the other continent will be weak. This goes AGAINST the grain of games by Cracker. I look for the weak-link civ and take them out. The first time in a GOTM by Cracker with a backwards civ was this month. The other landmass may very well turn out to be empty except for massive amounts of barbarians to tame. If we have another civ on that landmass, the will be strong.

Originally posted by LKendter
Add this to the speculation mystery:

We are given an optional graphics to load:
Leaderhead: Spanish/Hispanic

Since we are spain, why do we need an Hispanic leader? It this a hint about a new civ to appear?

I think those graphics are for people who don't have PTW, but I could be wrong.

so it is a deity game :cry: as stated by cracker in
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53480

My guesses:

I am going to make my guesses based on the position of the "real" spain:

The civ will start on a large peninusula, possibly with a thin neck and mountains. On the other side will be the bulk of the civs.

There will be a "portugul" equivalent. This is another civ that shares the peninusula and competes directly for space.

I think doing the "arabs" would be interesting. There is a "rock of gibaltar (how do you spell it - Ugh!). Ths is a point that is close enough to the peninsula that you don't have to cross sea. A civ will be living there, and it will be challenging the player for space on his continent fairly early.

Most of the other civs will be on the main continent across the peninusula. This simulates france, germany, etc. There may also be other land masses similar to England.

The early challenge is to keep "portugul" small, and perhaps drive the "arab" incurrsion off the peninsula. Once these have been overcome, the player can deal with the other civs on the continent. For a conquest victory, you will also need to invade the "england' equivalent(s) and the "arab" continent. which means boats.

I am not sure about whether it will have a "New world" reachable only through ocean travel. This was certainly a part of spanish history, but might be "too much to do" and might require a large map which is slow.

The size of the game will be standard, but will have more than normal land if Europe only.

Given that the goal of the high difficulty "Predator Class" game is conquest, I would now predict that there is some kind of map condition which makes such a victory more difficult than domination. One such impediment would be a strong island civ which is blessed with multiple luxuries and all of the important resources, and is not reachable from the home continent until navigation. An easy domination rout would bypass the strong island civ, while the Predator Class would be required to crack a tough nut.

Hmm.. adding to my first prediction : I think two of our opponents will be France and Germany. Charles 5th had France virtually surrounded but never managed to defeat it, and his dream of defeating protestantism also didn't materialize.

PS. Bit suprised nobody could complete the quote from Monty Python in my first post - oh well.

[The door flies open and Cardinal Ximinez of Spain [Palin] enters, flanked by two junior cardinals. Cardinal Biggles [Jones] has goggles pushed over his forehead. Cardinal Fang [Gilliam] is just Cardinal Fang]

Ximinez: NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[The Inquisition exits]

The whole thing is here (http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/paulfitz/spanish/script.html)

I've been thinking idly about this. Weak UU, 10 civs on a standard map, required to download a recource graphic which will not work on standard games and a deity backdrop. It just doesn't add up.

If you consider the historical perspective in that when the conquistadores went into south america the tribesmen there had never seen a horse before, then possibilities begin to appear.

If the "other" continent has no horses then they have no knights and cavalry. The UU would be available at exactly the right time to get to the other continent (navigation), so if you can gear up to mass produce the UU, they could all be loaded onto an Armada of galleons and go through the opposition over there like a dose of salts. The conquistadores will not be weak over there. Of course for balance Cracker would have to give the continent back something in exchange for horses, so why not tobacco (or cocaine ;)), and therefore the need for a new resource graphic?

I just know that when I play the game I'm gonna regret this post.

Originally posted by mad-bax
I've been thinking idly about this. Weak UU, 10 civs on a standard map, required to download a recource graphic which will not work on standard games and a deity backdrop. It just doesn't add up.

If you consider the historical perspective in that when the conquistadores went into south america the tribesmen there had never seen a horse before, then possibilities begin to appear.

If the "other" continent has no horses then they have no knights and cavalry. The UU would be available at exactly the right time to get to the other continent (navigation), so if you can gear up to mass produce the UU, they could all be loaded onto an Armada of galleons and go through the opposition over there like a dose of salts. The conquistadores will not be weak over there. Of course for balance Cracker would have to give the continent back something in exchange for horses, so why not tobacco (or cocaine ;)), and therefore the need for a new resource graphic?

I just know that when I play the game I'm gonna regret this post.

I think you're right about the weak New World civs and the UU. Though we'll probably have to fight the English and French for territory on the new continent at some point unless the Armada is more successful this time around, so don't rely on there being no other advanced units around.

You just need to download the resources file and open it alongside the standard one in a graphics app to see that the changes are additional text icons relating to (a) the three competition classes and (b) some historically important political regions of Spain, and the graphic icons for the normal resources have been shuffled about. I'm not sure why it was made incompatible with the standard resources file, as it seems to me the additions could just have been put in spare icon spaces without disturbing the ones used by other games.