so cracker, June 1st is in 49 minutes for me (I live in Michigan). Does that mean I get to play the GOTM soon????? :) Please???? :D

A tip for finding faster floodplain starts for practice: use the Arid setting...

But, it's almost too late for practice now :D ...

Originally posted by baronzilch
A tip for finding faster floodplain starts for practice: use the Arid setting...

But, it's almost too late for practice now :D ...

Not really, they just have to do their practice before downloading the GotM save file.

Oh, the save file isn't posted until midnight MST iirc.

Originally posted by Stone Wolf

Oh, the save file isn't posted until midnight MST iirc.

Cool, I have time for a couple of runs to 80 turns before then :) .

My first official Game of the Month and it's a Diety game. Just hope I survive. :)

Well, there is still 1 hour and 15 more minutes to go. After a long day from work, I'm really tired and I think I'm going to bed now. I will start this game early tomorrow. Good luck and have fun everyone. I'm sure most of us will survive. Even if we don't survive, we would still be gaining valuable EP (experience point) toward our next game.:)

This is my first GOTM, and I haven't really played much Deity, either. Great! I was practicing some this afternoon, and it seems like tech is going to be critical. Its too expensive to research yourself, so I'm going 10% research for the 40-turns straight to writing (using our alphabet advantage), and then to Literature. Meanwhile, my second city will immediately start building a Palace or something else large, such that it can be switched to the Great Library after I get Lit. Then (somewhat unintuitively), trade away Literature (otherwise the AIs will demand it of you and you don't get anything for it!), hope you get the Great Library first, and hope that you don't end up with the Red Ambulance.

Oh crap, here we go!

Gotm20-Spain is now available for you to play if you have prepared your game plan.

Before you download the game, I again want to encourage some of the newer players to hold off in the rush to dive into the game too quickly so that you might take advantage of the QSC strategy discussions and results that will be available from Gotm19-Ottomans in the next several days.

Please be patient this month and take a few extra moments to make sure that you are downloading the correct version of the game. We have added the three different classes o play options to help more people enjoy the games but this does require all of us to pay a little closer attentions to what we are doing to make sure we end up playing the corrent game.

I again want to remind all players to not participate in this pregame discussion thread in any way once you have downloaded and opened the game file. Again, we will be taking the mature route and trying to leave this discussion thread open to support players who have not yet viewed any portion of the game.

If you have technical questions or problems with either the PTW or v1.29 version of the game, DO NOT POST those issues here or in any other discussion thread. Contact me by email at gotm@civfanatics.net with a description of any perceived problems and we will work quickly to resolve any potential issues.

You may find the location to download the save game file for your version of the game to match the installation instructions that you have followed, by looking at the end of your setup instructions in the readme.txt file.

One of the definitions that I found for "Conquistador" as I researched materials for this game, said that no other group in history had come to more embody the terms of "ruthless adventurer". In that sense, perhaps it is appropriate that we all must be adventurous to rise to the challenges of this Deity level game and ruthless to be assured of a chance a victory.

Good luck to all players and please be sure to submit your results and share the stories of your adventures.

Well, after about a half hour of thought and a lot of reading, I reckon I'll move the worker SW to irrigate some plains and build the city at the start. That extra turn isn't a huge amount - but at Deity I'll need all the help I can get.

One thing I haven't decided yet - Open or Predator. Hmm... Well, I'm probably going to lose anyway, so I might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. Pass the rosary!

EDIT: Having read the thread, I haven't got PTW. Thank you God! Thank you! You can have the beads back folks!

I'll go for open, no doubt.
I wonder if I can find the time to play this month...
But then again, how long can it take for me to loose a deity game with 10 rivals :p

I'll listen to the pros and either scout with my worker on the hill or move the settler there right away.

I'm starting to wonder if the best spot for starting isn't one tile West--it loses one flood plain and gains a regular plain. If it's on the coast, even better.

I'm going to scout the hill with my worker, and see what's farther upriver. If, as people say, there is indeed wheat under a southeast tile, the hill will still grab it, and if the worker sees more grassland, that will allow me to have better production without risking as much disease. Unless a swath of desert is revealed near the hill, I'm probably moving there to cut down on early disease. The incense to the southwest is nice, but not essential- unless the map is been truly evil and an AI civ is immediately close to us (I see a non-scout by 3250 BC), I'll have a chance to get a settler near there.

With the large land percentage, I'll probably send at least one warrior for each major direction. Finding the Deity AIs is useful to not only trade tech before they find each other and the price hits rock bottom, but also gives major opportunities for worker buying. Spain's not industrious, and all the time I can spend building warriors/settlers rather than workers will be important. More workers= more cash=ability to catch up either through tech buys or upgrades. Also, I'll probably build little to no spearmen, as the AI likes quantity over quality, and cutting down on excessive demands will help my cash flow.

After that, I'll either go all-out food (settler/worker boom) or all-out military, depending on AI proximity. In the second case, I'll try to get 4-5 cities with shields, hopefully grab horses, get HBR and attack my closest neighbor (unless said neighbor is Greece or Carthage.) Expansion in general will tend to the north if at all possible, as flood plains indicate a tropical climate, with possible jungle to slog through nearby.

Tech-wise, I'll go directly for Pottery, as I'll either be in a position to build a granary immediately, or discovering the tech will be delayed as my capital is size 1 due to settler production. After that, research will probably be 40-turn on an expensive tech or off altogether, as researching against the Deity AI is... 'difficult' in the ancient era. With this many rivals, Writing will be a high priority to alert me to trading opportunities and guard against a dogpile.

As that's all I can say that's semi-original from looking at the game description, random speculation follows: I think we're going to have many European civilizations around, with France and England definitely in the mix. Babylon might be in, but putting in wouldn't fit well with the 'cultural opportunities' theme of the game announcement. ;)

I hope 'outnumbered by their foes' is a reference to the difficulty of defeating 10 AI on Deity, and not to food-poor land surrounding the starting position. :p

In the second case, I'll try to get 4-5 cities with shields, hopefully grab horses, get HBR and attack my closest neighbor

For those of you who have ever played Axis and Allies, "HBR" would (in that game) refer to Heavy Bombers..... I agree! Rolling for Heavies and blowing away your neighbors in Deity is the best plan.... ;) :lol:

-- From The Cellar :cooool:

Gonna start this week, I hope....! :)

Well, I was going to make a final post as I will start playing tonight now that my PC is working again. However, Borealis just posted my same thought with the hills and avoid the flood plains so I really can't offer any new insights.

Again this month I see no reason to move the settler. And again I see no point in moving the worker to a tile it will not work. The fog gazers have pinpointed wheat and incense which are both available in the radius of a city founded on the starting square, and we can always work the forrest for more shields. The only question to me is whether to improve a floodplain first, a plain first or suffer a couple of turns and move the worker directly to the wheat (assuming it exists). At the moment I think I will road and irrigate the FP to the south and micromanage with the forrest to gain shields. Depending on what surrounds us I may for the first time not build a granary in the capital but rather get a settler out quick an use two cities for settlers.

If I don't build a granary in the capital, then pottery is not important and I will go for the 40 turn gambit for writing.

I hope to god I can get horses in my core, otherwise I thik it will be a short game.

I've downloaded the game, so here goes.... and good luck everyone.:)

Looking in the Resources.pcx files that came with the GOTM20 there are 4 diagonal spanish text items (That are sure to peek out of the fog BTW) They read Andalusia, LaMancha, Catalonia and Hispanola. Surfing the web indicates Andalusia and Catalonia are regions of Spain. Hispanola was an island discovered by Spanish Conquistadors! If this items exist on the map, then I guess we will have to hurry to navigation and cross that ocean?!?!?!

The only reference to LaMancha I'm finding easily, is Don Quixote. I'm a little afraid on Diety that our knights will be jousting windmills.:lol:

Well, I'm off to start so no more posts from me.

Good luck to the hill goers, the city starters and the few others that find their own path. I plan to play the ball where it lies.:)

I've just done a couple of similar starts with the Spanish on deity, and played the second one out to the late industrial age (three civs no longer in the game and I'm not one of them! ... too bad France is three or four techs ahead, and I have neither cash nor military ... but anyway). I had pretty good success going without granaries in the second start, which had a flood-plain wheat, a forest/grassland game and several other floodplains within range of my first three cities. All those cities wound up building settlers, and it got me 10 cities, horses and three lux (no iron, though) before the deity AIs could close me in on what turned out to be a low- or medium-land Pangaea (standard map size). I was also able to get at least something from writing with an immediate 40-turn gambit every time I tried (total about 5 starts now), so I think I'll do that, too.

I'm still undecided about whether to scout the hill or not, and am wavering between working out some possibilities on a spreadsheet or just plopping down the settler to see what I can see as to where the worker should head.

Downloaded the game last night and will probably play at least a few turns tonight, so I'm outta here. Good luck everyone!

Renata

This is my first Deity level game and I'm still alive at 200 A.D.!!!! I'm waiting for the ax to fall at any moment......:hmm:

Norlamand, I look forward to seeing your account in the first spoiler thread on the 5th. (We don't post about the game in here once we start playing it, no matter how non-spoilery a post may be, as cracker has more than enough to worry about already without sorting out what is and is not innocent.) :goodjob: on surviving that far- I'll hopefully join you soon, as I'm starting my game today. :D

Sorry, I'll be more attentive in the future;)

II am getting very itchy to start my game, However I will take the advice of Cracker to wait until the QSC's from last month come out. Hopefully I can learn a more for this months game. I am going to play conquest level and hopefully I can survive long enough to finish a qsc.

Good luck to all in this month's gotm, I know I'll need it:)

OneFastWarrior,

Be sure to read the trading practice thread started by Moonsinger. Cracker made comments at the end about GOTM 20.

I'll be starting tonight, so good luck to you.

Goal #1 to survive until one of the AI's win.

Goal #2 not be in last on the points list

Goal #3 be in the same age as the winner

If I remember all the tips from SirPleib, Moonsinger, Dave McW, Cracker, et al, I might have a chance for at least 2 of those. I'm probably not ready to add victory to the list yet. If you haven't already read these, you probably should: Satchel's "How to Win by Diplomacy" , BamSpeedy's Bablyon Deity Settler's and Cracker's Civ3 opening plays.

:wallbash:

denyd,

Those goals all sound achievable, so I will go for those as well. But I always have to throw in the 4th goal of victory. You never know !!

Actually, to get a victory, say Diplomacy, a good goal is to be in the Top 2 in land or pop. I think. Just so you have a shot at that.

Is anybody else waiting on the results of GOTM19 before starting this game? Or is everybody already ready to post when spoiler 1 opens? I am itching to start, but want to wait..I'm wondering if that is wise at this point..

Originally posted by rabies
Is anybody else waiting on the results of GOTM19 before starting this game? Or is everybody already ready to post when spoiler 1 opens? I am itching to start, but want to wait..I'm wondering if that is wise at this point.. I'm following Cracker's advice to wait for the QSC stuff ... I need all the help I can get before I start a deity suicide mission. Not sure what else it will provide though, as most of the elite timelines have been published in the spoiler threads. Meanwhile I'm playing and replaying an Indian/deity/floodplains practice start to try to see what works and what doesn't. And praying for kind barbarians.

Originally posted by denyd
OneFastWarrior,

Be sure to read the trading practice thread started by Moonsinger. Cracker made comments at the end about GOTM 20.

I'll be starting tonight, so good luck to you.

Goal #1 to survive until one of the AI's win.

Goal #2 not be in last on the points list

Goal #3 be in the same age as the winner

If I remember all the tips from SirPleib, Moonsinger, Dave McW, Cracker, et al, I might have a chance for at least 2 of those. I'm probably not ready to add victory to the list yet. If you haven't already read these, you probably should: Satchel's "How to Win by Diplomacy" , BamSpeedy's Bablyon Deity Settler's and Cracker's Civ3 opening plays.

:wallbash:

Thanks denyd, I did follow Moonsingers trading session and did learn quite alot from it:D . Just hope it helps me to survive gotm20;) (I could not participate as I do not have my copy of vanilla civ).
I also have read quite abit of Crackers civ3 opening plays. I have yet to read Bamspeedys deity settlers, but I will probably read this before the week is done. I will check out Satchel's how to win diplomacy too (I might have read this, but I'm not sure) TOO MUCH INFORMATION!! HEAD GOING TO EXPLODE!!:cringe:

Originally posted by OneFastWarrior
II am getting very itchy to start my game, However I will take the advice of Cracker to wait until the QSC's from last month come out. Hopefully I can learn a more for this months game.

My thoughts exactly!
I did that last month and I think it helped me a lot in my opening moves with the Ottomans....

Originally posted by rabies
Is anybody else waiting on the results of GOTM19 before starting this game? Or is everybody already ready to post when spoiler 1 opens? I am itching to start, but want to wait..I'm wondering if that is wise at this point..

Hell I'm still working on PLAYING GOTM19 (purely for fun of course at this point, since submissions are closed). I'm fairly limited on how much I can play at this point due to some other obligations. I hope to finish and start GOTM 20 at some point, though, even if for fun only.

I am waiting for the results, but mainly because I don't feel like playing for some reason. I have waited so long for gotm20, and now that I can finally play it, I don't want to :(. Must be the weather.

OK! Now I've finished my HOF attempt and I've finally finished the busy part of the month (RL-wise) and the results are out I can start #20! I've read this thread, well parts of it anyway, and I think I'll move my worker on the hill to see what that grassland is like, on the other side, and if that doesn't show anything I'll move my settler south to see if there's really wheat and insence there. Techwise I think I'll go for a forty turn 2nd tier tech gambit as there's a lot of AI so we'll probably meet someone real soon and then we can get pottery cheap...
I'm gonna start when I get home, so pray for me, as this is my first attempt at deity.... :(

Deity is tough, good luck.