BZ4 - A race to the Stars

After so much war-mongering in Bz1, 2, and 3 it is time to sharpen other skills. This game will be a test of how to get to that holy grail - 4 turn research - and stay there till we launch the SS. We will be aiming for the earliest SS launch possible. As early as we can.

I want to play the game in the latest patch of PTW, 1.27. But I am uncertain since I know allmost all of us are playing other Sgs in the 1.21f patch. Since I am not sure about compatibiity etc. I am willing to stick to 1.21f.

As usual I will be maintaining the roster and other things over here.

Game - A Race to the Stars
Victory Condition - Spaceship, of course
Difficully - Deity
Barbs - Sedentary
Civ - Koreans
MapSize - Large
AI Civs - Random
Terrain - TBD


Requirements for sign up
Although this game is Deity, you need not have a Deity win under your belt to enroll in this game (although that will be preferable of course). However, you should be comfortable playing on Emperor and definitely have multiple solo Emperor wins to your credit.

Roster (first set of turns, Completed)
_______________
Earp -
Snaproll -
Stuck_As_A_Mac
Betazed -
NewDestroyer -

Remaining set of turns (10 turns each)
__________________
Betazed
Earp
Stuck_As_A_Mac -> Just Played
NewDestroyer -> Playing Now

I was thinking about being Scientific and Commercial in the civ trait, since both of these two traits will help in our research. The only civs with those traits are the Greeks and the Koreans.

Greeks are good. They have a very good ancient age defender and since we will not be going to war in the early age (will we?) they will suffice.

The Koreans I have never played as. Their UU of H'wacha seems useless, IMHO. So Koreans I am not sure of.

Thoughts?

Ok I think I am in

One question though: If we don't use the latest patch, does that mean we can't patch our games until after this SG ends? I'm not sure how all this patching and compatibilty stuff works.

I'd prefer not to play the Greeks, since I just played them in Epic 31. I've never played Koreans - this seems like a good game to use them. We will have to go to war, though - there's no way we'll get enough cities in the land grab, I expect.

I like the idea of a Sci/Comm civ. I vote for the Koreans. Bz1 and Bz3 were oriental civs, maybe in bz5 we should use the Mongols.

What about map size?

Ok. The civ is Koreans, since we have three votes.

About the patch - as I said I am not sure. If we can find out how 1.21f and 1.27 can or cannot co-exist then we can take an informed decision.


About Map Size - I would say Large. Huge takes a lot of time in the later stages and standard always seems a bit easy since it does not have many civs.

This is a very interesting SG.
I am presently on the verge of overcommitting my time (on the verge... but on the 'wrong' side of it!).

I'll be lurking with a lot of interest, though. Very nice idea.

Are you going to leave on the other victory conditions for the AI? Are we going to choose the other civs or leave them random? We could pick all scientific civs or no other scientific civs.

I think we should use as large of a map as possible. More civs means a faster tech pace.

Originally posted by Earp
I think we should use as large of a map as possible. More civs means a faster tech pace.

Click to expand...

I am ok with a huge map.

Originally posted by Earp
Are you going to leave on the other victory conditions for the AI? Are we going to choose the other civs or leave them random? We could pick all scientific civs or no other scientific civs.

Click to expand...

Yes we should leave all the other victory conditions on for the AI.

As for the other civs if we play a huge map we should get many civs with scientific traits. Do you think we should hand pick commercial and scientific civs? It seems a little like cheating, but I will go with it if the majority wants to handpick the civs.

Random civs is fine with me.

After some thought, I think I would prefer a large map over a huge map. I agree with betazed that huge maps take a long time in the later stages.

Do we want to play with continents or pangaea? I like continents because the turns when the other continents are discovered can usually be used to great benefit.

I think a flat/tropical world will have less mountains and hills and more rivers and therefore more commerce and a faster tech pace. <-- Does this sentence make sense?

Im in. From BZ2, RBP11b, Enders Game 1, I have the credit.
I also have this:

Here's to better luck!

edit: random civs are fine and i think a random world would provide a chalange. Also, I'll be out for (another) week sometime later this month. Parents are bringing us back to Cape Cod.

edit of edit: Aug 14-18 ill be out. 5 bil, wet is fine with me. I just worry we'll wind up in a jungle. or that oil will be scarce

@SAAM: You are in.

The only thing left to determine is the terrain. Earp, your sentence makes sense. We need lot's of rivers. The only way to ensure this IIRC, is to go for a 5 billion year old terrain that will have a lots of flat land and a wet climate.

Also we should enure that the starting position has a river and we should be seeing more rivers nearby.

can i join?

Originally posted by NewDestroyer
can i join?

Click to expand...

Are you comfortable playing at Deity and Emperor level? If you start an Emperor game all by yourself do you have a better than even chance of beating it?

Betazed - Just to let you know I'll be on vacation for about 10 days coming up real quick - from the 22nd of August until the 2nd of September. Just a warning!

Originally posted by Snaproll
Betazed - Just to let you know I'll be on vacation for about 10 days coming up real quick - from the 22nd of August until the 2nd of September. Just a warning!

Click to expand...

What a coincidence! I too will be off for a vacation, from 20th August to 2nd September. Off to the depths of the African Serengeti for a photo shoot and a safari .

If I am not mistaken even Earp is out for sometime then.

That's not a problem, the other team members can keep playing at that time or hold it in abeyance till we come back (whatever is agreeable to everybody).

yea i am confortable w/ emperor for sure, im playing the gotm currently . i will be on vacation tho from the 6th to 14th, so u might have to skip me a few times.

ok so here is the plan.

I have modified the first post to reflect our turn roster. I will also specify who's up after each player finishes his/(her? is anyone female in our group - just so I do not make grammatical gender mistakes) turns.

The first 100 turns or so are very crucial. Hence I have given priority to Earp and Snap to play 20 turns each, since their MM skills are very good (better than me at least) and MM is so important in the beginnning. After that everyone follows with 10 turns as mentioned in the next phase of the roster.

Every player must end his turns with notes for the next player with any specific do's and dont's that they have in mind. This is important so that we consistently follow a global strategy for the entire game and not get carried away with our individual strategies. Similarly, if he (she?) does not agree with any do's and don'ts of the earlier player he (she?) is free to post the reasons why.

Hence, before we start the game each player should pen his thoughts about what the global overall strategy should be in this game. I understand that there may be many tactical decisions taken during the game that may affect our true strategy. However, I would rather jump into it knowing exactly what I am planning to do.

Does this sound reasonable?

Fine with me.
And now, my opinions.
A soild start is, of course, needed. This game cannot be purely peaceful. An assult on an enemy may/most likely will be needed for teritorial/pointy stick reasons. After this, however, it is good to build infastructure and concentrate on tech.

This has been Deep Thoughts with Steve Handey

Ok. Here are my 2 cents about overall strategy.

We will start with alphabet and Bronze Working. Research Pottery at full speed and then build a granary for settler pump. Gain the early contacts and try to maximize the trades for Alphabet (Alphabet is highly valued by the AI). After Pottery we should turn off research.

As we get close to Literature, prosecute an early war on the nearest civ, if possible . We should rope in maximum number of allies against that civ too. The main objective of this war is to get a leader to rush TGL. This way we can turn off research till education.

On reaching education research Astronomy first and start a pre-build for Copernicus. Snag that and make a beeline for ToG to snag Newtons. We should try and build these wonders in the city with the max commerce output to get a very good science city.

From then on it should be routine, ToE -> Hoover -> SETI (Computers should be the first to be researched in Modern age, I am hoping we get it for free but chances of that happening is low). We bypass the Modern Armor line as we bypass all unnecessary techs even Military tradition and Nationalism as far as possible.

Also, we should science broker judiciously to keep funding our science. Our military should be just enough to deter the AI and provide strong defense. We do not want to run high maintenance costs.

We should not start global wars. This slows down research. The AI should be researching at full speed. If any one AI civ turns out to be a warmonger we should start a dog pile on them so that it is wiped out completely and put a stop on the wars.

Sounds simple! I am sure we will run into all sorts of contingencies that will change this

Did I miss anything? Comments?