Technically this Poll and Discussion would also be viewed as a spoiler for Gotm19-Ottomans - If you have not already virtually completed you Gotm19 game and still plan to submit then you should get that requirement out of the way before viewing this poll or participating in this discussion.

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Special thanks to Ambiorix for compiling the nominations links index for this months player's choice awards. The process we used here was that Ambiorix did all the hard work (and had to be told to include himself) and then Cracker and some of the Gotm staff reviewed the possible nominees to determine the poll choices and the honorable mention awards.
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Here is your chance to acknowledge those players who gave great advice in the pregame discussion thread for Gotm19-Ottomans.

NOTE: This poll is multi-choice and you could vote for every nominee if that was your choice.

Once again the pre-game discussion thread formed a burstling marketplace where visions, insights and strategies were bartered and evaluated. Experienced players explaining their strategies and newly arrived players probing for more information adds a lot to the flavor and joy of each Gotm.

A lot of people discussed first-move sequences based on the starting position - too many to include them all in this poll. Some people provided additional insight in long-term strategies and general principles for playing at higher difficulty levels.

The links in the nominations below will take you to some of the key posts, but you may want to browse through the thread to pick up the broader scope of the discussions including comments and interpretations by other players in response to the original posts by the nominees.

The nominees are (in alphabetical order):

Ambiorix
who discussed early build sequences (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=943852#post943852) and added a look-alike scenario for hands-on training. He later added some nuances (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948947#post948947).

BillChin
who discussed an early granary (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=946003#post946003), archer gambit (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=950521#post950521), and practice runs (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=952788#post952788).

Borealis
who discussed using the sliders (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=945459#post945459) and gave her overall strategy (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=958006#post958006).

Bouchehog
who covered just about everything that could be covered about the opening position in great detail 3 posts here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=959701#post959701), and more further down (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=961736#post961736)).

col
who explained his horseman strategy (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=954811#post954811).

DaveMcW
who gave a rather unique evaluation of the starting position (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=943977#post943977), convincing advice on temples (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948573#post948573), and early wonders (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948591#post948591).

Greebley
who shared his view (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=951249#post951249) as a player going from Monarch to Emperor level.

Karasu
who considered early warfare (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948489#post948489) (and some more (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=949038#post949038)), as well as workers (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=950348#post950348).

Moonsinger
who was looking downstream (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=944435#post944435) first, and after some encouragement here, and further (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=950846#post950846)) on a previous post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=950671#post950671), gave excellent advice on spearman-vs-warrior (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=951430#post951430) and tribute-tolerance (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=951473#post951473).

Shillen
who was omnipresent this month, sharing views on tech pace (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=943760#post943760), first moves (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=943838#post943838), and early strategy (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=946023#post946023) (with more details (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=946250#post946250)). And that's just a small selection of his posts.

SirPleb
who gave us a peek inside his mind by providing an up-to-the-level list (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=946438#post946438) of issues to consider, and later on added his view on Sipahi (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948545#post948545) and temples (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948759#post948759).

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Honorable Mention Recognition Awards

mad-bax
who gave his general remarks (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=945248#post945248) on the opening position.

Renata
who emphasized not looking weak to the AI (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=945226#post945226).

Ronald
who explained his search for a better starting site (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=944321#post944321).

Smirk
who mulled settling right away and joining the worker early (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=948813#post948813).

Hopefully we have not missed any of the major points of advice that were shared in the pregame discussion, but if you feel that we did then please post a comment to this thread that quotes and acknowledges any important points made by indivduals that we may have missed. Every individual person makes an important contribution to the perspective and enjoyment of all the players in the GOTM community. This is just one of the ways that we can say thanks and point out some of the things that add value to the process for us all.

REMEMBER that you CAN VOTE FOR MORE THAN ONE CHOICE in the poll and we want to encourage every player to vote for at least 3 or 4 examples where they can acknowledge some good advice being given by the participants. (NOTE from Cracker - It would be just fine with me if this poll resulted in a 11 way tie between all the nominees. Just being nominated for the player's choice award for giving good advice is an honor unto itself.)

Please use your posts in this thread to thank all of the players who generously shared their perspectives in the pregame discussion fo Gotm19-Ottomans and to point out thos key peices of advice that helped to make the game more enjoyable for you when you actually proceeded to play the game on your own.

i followed DavemcW's advice alost to the letter which resulted in the 'controversial' start of moving the setter sw to get both the plains wheat and the game within the capital's extended borders. Too bad i muffed that advange up..

Originally posted by Ribannah
I don't really like the starting position. Perhaps there are better tiles on the other side of the river. I'll be thinking about moving two squares. However, the Worker can go south and the Warrior west before we have to decide about moving the Settler. Or, alternatively, sending the Warrior north could also gain valuable information.

Well, I followed my own advice, settled 1 tile sw and survived! :king:

I didn't follow my advice about settling right away, but it had more to do with the cow I spotted when my warrior went north than the wheat which I didn't see yet. My first two cities were closer to what I consider my optimum distance by the move.

On the other hand I did join the worker, I'm anxious to see the QSC results to what sort of effect this had. Although I know I had a power edge and thus very cheap tech trading for the entire period, but that might be more because of the wealth of food tiles around the start.


Anyway, the best advice was to rush to Sipahi (Karusu and some others), I figured (rightly) that a swords war was useless versus the Carthage, but my mistake was thinking that a Knight war would be better, boy was I wrong!

This month the coveted Zagnut Bar award for best pre-game advice goes to:

1. DaveMcW

2. SirPleb

3. Moonsinger

Since only one person took me up last month on my offer to send them an actual Zagnut candy bar, I am posting a picture of the bar this month so that you can all drool over it.

Thanks for the great advice everyone.

Thank you Zagnut!

I confess to being the greedy pig who took the offer of a real Zagnut Bar last month. It is still sitting in a place of honor, tempting me daily. It will probably not survive much longer :)

Thank you Zagnut! If it wasn't for SirPleb 's milking article year ago, I probably won't still be playing Civ3 today. Therefore, I would like to dedicate my Zagnut Bar to SirPleb.:)

Thank you all for the great advice. And now this thread will become obsolete as we all travel on to Spain.