Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
All Leaders Challenge Game 22: Arabs/Saladin
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack
Pre-Game Thread
Starting Position (this post, below)
Round 1: 4000 BC to 2625 BC (55 turns)
Round 2: 2625 BC to 1500 BC (45 turns)
Round 3: 1500 BC to 380 BC (48 turns)
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 Saladin, leader of the Arabs. I'm playing the game using the 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 (more details below), and the speed is Epic.
Here is a more detailed look at the initial game settings.
r_rolo1 was generous enough to generate this start since my old computer died recently and I'm still awaiting delivery of my new one. martin026 recommended the Hemispheres map with islands; r_rolo1 suggested the further refinement of 2 continents. I kept the Choose Religions setting for flavour, but after some recent experiments with other custom settings, I've decided to leave them at their defaults for this game.
Here is the starting position:
r_rolo1 gave me three starts to choose from and I selected this one. It seemed well-balanced, offering a good amount of potential while not featuring an overpowering element like gold or gems. As I indicated in the pre-game thread, I want something of a challenge on what I expect to be the last ALC played on Emperor.
So I have 4 flood plains visible in the fat cross along with a couple of plains hills and some forests. The only visible resource is the riverside plains cows. There's a fresh water bonus to offset some of the unhealthiness of the flood plain tiles (along with the cows, of course); since Saladin is not Expansive, the flood plains may make health a bit of an issue for the capital eventually.
The many riverside tiles suggest this will be an excellent capital to cottage in anticipation of the Bureaucracy boost. Food will be a little bit of a challenge in the short run if nothing else shows up in the fog, but not excessively so; I might have to irrigate one or two flood plains until later in the game in order to work the mines on those plains hills.
At the moment, moving the Settler nearby doesn't make much sense to me, since doing so would involve losing a flood plain or a forest. And as many of you have maintained in the past, founding a city on a sub-par tile like plains or desert is usually a good idea. The only other relatively attractive spot is that riverside plains hill 2N of the Settler, but that would be a gamble--there are a lot of unrevealed tiles up that way. Based on the terrain, there could be a lot of desert nearby. While that may be appropriate when playing as the Arabs, as Prince Feisal told Lawrence, "No Arab loves the desert." And neither do Civ players.
Nevertheless, there is the possibility that moving the Warrior will reveal something attractive that's worth moving towards. The obvious spot to move the Warrior, to me, is that grassland hill 1NW. That would reveal quite a bit of surrounding terrain before you make your final recommendations and I make my final decision. I could also move him 1SE, but that won't reveal nearly as much terrain, and 1NW would reveal some of what we'd get by moving to the plains hill to the north.
Thoughts?