Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
All Leaders Challenge Game 19: Sumer/Gilgamesh
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack
Pre-Game Thread
Starting Position (this post, below)
Regenerated Start: 4000 BC
Round 1: 4000 BC to 3150 BC (34 turns)
Round 2: 3150 BC to 1725 BC (57 turns)
Round 3: 1725 BC to 925 BC (32 turns)
Round 4: 925 BC to 305 BC (30 turns)
Round 5: 305 BC to 625 AD (62 turns)
Round 6: 625 AD to 1150 AD (45 turns)
Round 7: 1150 AD to 1370 AD (34 turns)
Round 8: 1370 AD to 1525 AD (31 turns)
Round 9: 1525 AD to 1742 AD (55 turns)
Round 10: 1742 AD to 1820 AD (39 turns)
Round 11: 1820 AD to 1895 AD (65 turns)
Round 12: 1895 AD to January, 1959 AD(83 turns)
Post Mortem
The idea of the All Leaders Challenge is that I'm going to play a game with each of the Civ IV leaders. With the help of all the posters who participate, I will attempt to make the most of the leader's unique characteristics: traits, starting techs, unit, and building. Aside from the leader, the other game settings are (mostly) kept constant for the sake of comparison. I will post the saved game files, screenshots, and status reports here as the game progresses. Everyone then has a chance to chime in with their strategy ideas, or voice their frustration (or glee) when I make a mistake.
Everyone is invited to offer opinions and advice, and to make your own attempt at playing the same game. But if you do play a "shadow game", I kindly request that you refrain from posting spoilers--i.e. any facts or even hints about the map, opponents, and so on--before I'm there myself. I'm trying to play the game as authentically as possible.
In this ALC game, I'll be playing as Gilgamesh, leader of Sumer. I'm playing the game using the new Beyond the Sword expansion pack, its latest patch (3.13), and Bhruic's unofficial patches as well. The difficulty level is Emperor, the map is Hemispheres, and the speed is Epic.
Here is a look at the initial game settings. Since the Hemispheres map has several additional settings, the easiest way to show them to everyone (and for me to remember them) is to use the Custom Game menu:
I've decided to start playing with some of the optional settings in this game. I chose a fairly minor one to start with: "Choose Religions". This allows the first civ to finish researching a religious tech to choose the religion that is founded as a result. This will make us a little less able to discern the advancement level of an opponent just based upon the religion that is founded. I tried this in an offline game a while back and the most disconcerting result was when Taoism was founded around 2000 BC! I then realized I had lost one of my markers for when the Liberalism race had begun (with the research of Philosophy and the usual founding of Taoism).
I didn't choose any other optional settings because I want to see how the game play pans out with the new patches in place. Also because I'm playing on a new map type for the first time in an ALC game. I also kept the standard number of civilizations for a standard-sized map.
Here's a reminder as to Gilgamesh's unique characteristics:
And, finally, here is the starting position:
A promising start, I think. There's rice, which I can farm as soon as I have a Worker since Sumer starts with Agriculture. The river provides a health bonus and several good tiles for cottages (even if we decide to run a specialist economy, it's usually best to cottage the capital to leverage democracy). There are several forests for health, chopping, or whatever. I also have three Calendar-enabled happy resources nearby that will provide commerce roughly equivalent to towns, especially since two are next to a river.
Dye also enables the built-in +1 from Theatres, and since Gilgamesh is Creative, those cheap buildings are even cheaper for him--good synergy there. I think I'll therefore want to make Drama a priority in the latter part of the early game, and get the Globe Theatre built somewhere so I can whip or draft units from it without penalty. But we have a lot of fish to fry before that will come to be.
To my mind the logical next move is for the Warrior to go one tile north onto the grassland hill. The chief question in my mind is whether or not I settle in place or move the Settler one tile north onto the plains hill for the protection and especially the +1 . The Warrior may reveal if there's anything worth having in the capital's fat cross by moving there. My instincts say there isn't. I would trade some riverside grassland tiles for some unknown tiles and one coastal tile that won't be much use later in the game. That and my experience is telling me to settle in place and to ignore the siren call of the plains hill this time, but I want to hear everyone else's thoughts on the matter, of course, before I make any final decisions.
Another possibility is 1 NW onto the dye tile where the Warrior is now standing. That strikes me as rather dubious, though--I weaken a high commerce tile for coastal access with no seafood in sight.
So I say settle in place, but let's see what everyone else thinks.