News: BOTM 53 - Starts April 15

BOTM 53: Let's Make a Deal!

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm53civ.jpg[/img]

Game Details:

Monty Hall, the famous host of the game-show 'Let's Make a Deal', was approached by a demon in his dreams one night. The demon said, "Monty, would you like to trade your nice comfortable retirement for a chance to own the world?" Monty said, "Let's Make a Deal!"

Poor Monty felt "Zonked", however, when he saw what he was given to start with. So the demon said, "Well, Monty, here's what I'll do. You can either keep this deserted scrap of desert and I'll throw in two corn and three oasis tiles... or... you choose what is behind Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3." The audience screams "Take the doors, take the doors!". Being the sporting type, that's just what Monty does.

Your task is to aid Monty in selecting the right door for Monty that will best serve your goals in building a civilization that can stand the test of time.

So... will it be Door #1 with the seafood? Door #2 with the floodplains and gold? Or Door #3 with the pigs and deer? Or something else???


You will play as Monty Hall (Montezuma) of the Aztecs. You are Aggressive and Spiritual, and start with Hunting and Mysticism. The Aggressive trait gives you +100% when building barracks and drydocks and gives a free promotion to melee and gunpowder units. The Spiritual trait gives you +100% production on temples, and no anarchy. Your unique unit is the Jaguar, which is cheaper than the swordsman it replaces, but has a strength of 5 instead of 6. The Jaguar also starts with the woodsman-1 promotion, and does not require any resource to build. Your unique building is the Sacrificial Altar, which replaces the Courthouse and reduces unhappiness duration from sacrificing population by 50%, in addition to the normal benefits of courthouses.

The game will start in the Ancient Era against 7 AI, at Normal game speed.

Game settings:
Civilization: Monty Hall of the Aztecs
Rivals: 7 AIs
Difficulty: Noble
Map: Custom Continents, Low Seas*
Mapsize: Standard
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No Random Events, No huts, Aggressive AI, No Technology Brokering, and Permanent Alliances enabled
Victory Conditions: All enabled


Starting screenshot

This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):




Adventurer Class bonuses:
A worker will join you on your quest. You start with a worker on the same tile as the settler. He brings with him the knowledge of The Wheel.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Your scout died of thirst. He was the only one of you who knew anything, so you start without any technologies.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 April 2012, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 15 May 2012.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Warlords or Civ4 vanilla), patched to version 3.19, and with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the BUFFY mod here. Players using Windows Vista are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Warlords or Civ4 vanilla), patched to version 3.19, and with the MacBUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the MacBUFFY mod here.

While playing...

Remember - for your entry to be accepted, it MUST be your first attempt to play this game, and you MUST NOT replay any turns. If you make a mistake while playing, you have to live with it, learn from it, and carry on the game without replaying.

We will open 'spoiler' threads during the month for players to discuss what happens in their games. Do not discuss any details of your game outside those threads.

Ooooh, I'm torn between #2 and #3

Door #3 at first glance looks the most compelling, #2 has no visible food, so it might be a bit slow. #2 would make a very nice Beauro cap though if you cottaged all those FP.

Door #1 will make an awesome GP farm, assuming we still get it.

I wonder how difficult the game would become if one were to settle in place...

Now this looks interesting... Can't wait to get started!

Wait...yall watch old American game shows in Sweden

I was thinking Door #3 as well simply due to the starting techs. Door #2 looks like Bureau central, but #3 may actually get the empire up faster. Move the cap later.

So where is this 2 corn/3oasis?

I would not be surprised if we are isolated here.

First impression - definitely #2 or #3, because then you can settle second city in other position. #1 won't give you such option.
Aggresive bunch... Well I remember one of my first BOTMs on Noble. It was fight for survival.

kcd_swede said:

Poor Monty felt "Zonked", however, when he saw what he was given to start with. So the demon said, "Well, Monty, here's what I'll do. You can either keep this deserted scrap of desert and I'll throw in two corn and three oasis tiles... or... you choose what is behind Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3." The audience screams "Take the doors, take the doors!". Being the sporting type, that's just what Monty does.

Click to expand...

I want door#4. SIP with the two corn and 3 oasis. Darn you Monty!

cas

Aggressive AI!! I had the most epic BOTM ever with that a while back. Racked up over 500 kills in over 100 hours of gameplay. That was on a harder difficulty though.

#3 for me, since we start with hunting.

OK, so aggressive AI on means everyone else is more likely to build troops & choose war as an option, is that right? As for "no tech brokering" - what does that mean? Is that the same as no tech trades?

Finally, I thought jaguars also didn't need any resource to be built?

Finally finally, I love the work you do but does anyone check what races have been played recently, this feels like, I don't know, the 4th Aztec game in 2 years across GOTM/BOTM? (Yes I know I'm way too fussy, and I really am grateful for the work put into these )

WelshGandalf said:

As for "no tech brokering" - what does that mean? Is that the same as no tech trades?

Click to expand...

"No Tech brokering" means that you can only trade techs that you have self-teched. In other words, you can't trade Aesths for Alpha and then trade Alpha around to all the other AIs.

Of course, on this level tech trading is irrelevant anyway, unless the Swede has more surprises.

Yep, there seems to have been a few Monty games just in the last year across the GOTMs. I think he was used twice on GOTM in a fairly short span. However, who else to play Monty Hall but Monty himself.

WelshGandalf said:

Finally, I thought jaguars also didn't need any resource to be built?

Click to expand...

True.


And the no tech brokering / Agg AI will make the AI science pace even slower. Agg AI usually leads to later wonder build dates by the AI too.

cas

@ playing Monty

It -should- mean that we are guaranteed to not face Monty, that's kind of cool.

This will make an interesting "Where everyone settled" -map. Although it might be a bad idea, I kind of want to settle #1 and maybe take #2 and #3 by force, if the AI gets them. By the way - remind me, can you still trade bulbed techs with "no tech brokering" on?

neilmeister said:

@ playing Monty

It -should- mean that we are guaranteed to not face Monty, that's kind of cool.

Click to expand...

Then again, we could meet Shaka who's - in my opinion - even worse.

cas said:

I want door#4. SIP with the two corn and 3 oasis. Darn you Monty!

cas

Click to expand...

Well, the demon never said where the tiles would be added, so I think Monty made the right call.

WelshGandalf said:

Finally, I thought jaguars also didn't need any resource to be built?

Finally finally, I love the work you do but does anyone check what races have been played recently, this feels like, I don't know, the 4th Aztec game in 2 years across GOTM/BOTM? (Yes I know I'm way too fussy, and I really am grateful for the work put into these )

Click to expand...

Correct about jaguars not needing resource. That allows you guys to choose your door based on what you see without overly worrying about what might be hidden.

BOTM33 was the last time you played as Monte in a BtS. GOTM69, 64, and 50 also featured Monte, but that's the vanilla version which is significantly different, imo. Note also that vanilla has fewer leaders so he will naturally appear more often there.

Enjoy it while you got it, because I doubt he shows up as the player civ in a BOTM for at least another 20 months.

My gut reaction is to take door 3 to make use of the early hunting. The question is where to settle at Door 3. It looks like there is no way to get all 3 resources and still be on the river. I am actually tempted by the plains hill (The gold coin means it is on a river, right??), which misses the pig, but the PH start + 2 doors are enough for a settler pump to try and get to the other doors as well, and the Pig can surely be got with a latter city.

Second choice would be Gold, which would be more tempting to me at a higher lever, where I need to beat the AI to a key tech in order to start trading. Since this level and setting of AI is likely to be of zero use as a trading partner, then I would rather have quick settlers and a latter gold.

For medal-winners Noble is always easy, but I'm a little nervous about settling on 4th or 5th turn.
Well, I just hope I'm better now, after one year, because Agg AI just smashed me on my first or second BOTM.
Lymond's reasoning sounds convincing to me. I'm aiming for #3, but with Pigs, S from lake.
The road to Pottery is long anyway, so #2 will be better to settle later.

kcd_swede said:

BOTM33 was the last time you played as Monte in a BtS. GOTM69, 64, and 50 also featured Monte, but that's the vanilla version which is significantly different, imo. Note also that vanilla has fewer leaders so he will naturally appear more often there.

Enjoy it while you got it, because I doubt he shows up as the player civ in a BOTM for at least another 20 months.

Click to expand...

Good point about vanilla/BTS. I always thought jaguar was a bit of a meh unit, so I will look forward to using the sacrifical altar. I'm thinking of oracling CoL to get them. Getting CS from the oracle will be a bit harder than normal due to the late settling.

Still no answer to what exactly "no tech brokering" means...?

Oh and also, if anyone is interested, I found the agressive AI BOTM game I was looking for, it was BOTM 36. That was at a harder difficulty though so I don't anticipate this being as hard as that. Check out my match report and screenshots (kill count was actually over 1000!). Oh and the warlord units got uber promoted.

I answered your question, WG

Whaaa I don't like to have a choice

Hm, Door 3 and as fast as possible settler out for Door 2?

I guess it is faster rexing vs faster initial tech speed.

Yes WG, that's the game. BOTM 36. I'm still having nightmares after it.
But your struggle inspired me ot never give up...
..and I have the most colorfull collection of shields now


and I counted over 1800 kills from your screens

Door #2 is closer to the other two sites.