Gotm22-Vikings PreGame Discussion

This month's game should be another really fun and yet challenging experience.

It is not possible for you to begin play at this time but you can strategize together about what you think you would do in the main strategic challenges of game.

This process should allow all the players to look over the setup instructions for the game and discuss what they think these instructions mean without the risk of any real spoiler information. Since none of the players will be able to start the game, essentially all you will have available to support your discussion will be past GOTM results and strategy articles.

The rules for participation in this discussion thread are simple:

1) read the game announcement and get yourself set up to play the game when the save game is released to you.

2) The Naval Movement feature and Class Bonus features in this game have been announced on the scope of the game pages and you may freely discuss these features here. If you would ike to provide links to sample save games with examples of the naval movement feature presented in Gotm21 spoiler examples, please post thos example in the appropriate spoiler thread for Gotm21 and thne provide a link in a post here. Do not post save games from Gotm21 in this thread.

3) Once you download the starting save game file and open it to begin play you may no longer participate in this discussion thread.

I plan to leave this thread open to support pregame discussion for any players who have not yet opened the starting save game file but if we have any players who violate this rule the discussion will be closed.

Again there is a great deal going on inside and around this month's game, but at the core of the process the game is simple and fun. Read the instructions and you will have a good time.

Be warned also that the first spoiler discussion will not open until August 5th.

The first spoiler discussion will require you to have a very defined map visibility plus contact with specific neighbors and technolgy to complete the Ancient AGe.

Here is your link to the

Game Announcement Page for Gotm22-Vikings

Good luck as you embark on your epic adventures, explorations, trading expeditions, and conflicts.

Difficulty level demigod? Sounds scary...

Initial moves would be Worker South, Scout North;North-West to get a good all round view. Coast most likely to the East though, if the river is worth following.

Nice to see a river start with some plains - reckon we'll need every early shield we can get.

EDIT: Having seen the position on the world map, I wouldn't be surprised to see desert from the northern mountain and tundra from the southern! Arid and cool - not my favourite combination.

What is demi-god? I thought that was a Conquests difficulty setting. What was that for...to bridge the gap between Monarch & Deity I think... So is this a hard Monarch map, or easy Deity one (due to modifications)?

Oh, and nice to see a not-so-bold color. I wonder if Cracker chose purple intentionally due to the colors of the Vikings football team?

standard Monarch level game playing as the Greeks under the conditions described in the Gotm21 "Scope of the Game" announcement.

Click to expand...

Checked the scope statements and they have been fixed

This statement in the announcement is a bit confusing and I think just a carryover from last month. I think the game it self is actually Emperor (Standard for Open, tons o'bonuses for Conquest, and Emperor + for Predator). DemiGod is the new level to bridge the game between Emperor and Deity. In this case the only true demigod level is the predator game I think.

Anyway, after looking at the start I think the Worker will go to the East t the Bonus Grass and the scout will go the the mountain top to the NW. The 2 moves will decide wether to move the settler or not. I think my only possible moves would be to the NE or to settle where we start. I don't think I would move off the river and moving SE could possibly put more mountains in the initial city radius.

From the write up it looks to be a very tough map. Islands, cold, dry and rugged. I think I will go for Map Making from the start. The benifit of getting pottery for free is getting a granary soon after the first few scouts are out and about. Seeing how the map is not going to have much area to explore before Galleys I think I will only have 2 or 3 scouts to start and then a granary.

Here is also a copy of the minimap for this game setup to help you in your game planning:

From a quick glance at the mini-map, we may safely deduce that making Hagar & Co move northwards would be a good move. At least this kind of equator thinking applies under normal circumstances, but cracker may have one or two tricks up his sleeve, as always! We love you, cracker, not only for your gotms but also for your authority, coolness and to-the-point tone all rolled into one great moderator, fair and free!! (Sorry guys. I was taken away there, for a second or two. That was scary. Phew! )

BTW, I have a basic newbie question to cracker or somebody else who knows - what does the designation underneath one's username mean in the posts? They usually read "chieftain", "warlord" etc, but could be "orange soda", "homicidal jungle cat" or anything else. Can they be changed, and then, when and how?

worlddomination: You can edit your title and lots of other fun stuff on your user cp.


I will send my scout east and worker south, attempting to find that perfect coastal+freshwater location for my OCC.

If my lands are fertile enough, I may build the Great Lighthouse before the Great Library to control sea contact.

Hmm, I can hardly wait for this one .

Said on the game announcement page:

"All Vikings were Norse, but not all Norse were Vikings "

*Beep* Wrong. There was Swedish and Danish vikings as well. True the Norse vikings were the most famous and together with the Danes they explored the west and southwest and the Swedes mainly sailed/rowed east. The tradecenter Birka was Swedish.

Well gozpel, I think you're mixing up Norse with Norwegian.

Look up how recent Norway is - you'll be quite amazed (as well as how big Denmark was).

OT: First build obviously another scout. A 5000 tile world with 66% water gives us 1,700 land tiles - split 9 ways that's less than 200 tiles each, but do remember that the geology means mountains, deserts and tundra are more common.

Would not be surprised if the initial expansion ends earlier than recent GOTMs.

Northeast and southeast are two potential spots I would move the first setter.
My worker could go to either of the river shieldlands, more likely east.
My scout will most likely start going north and depending what is shown there will either go to the mountain or towards the guessed coastline to the east.

The plains may also be a good move if coast is just out of reach (2 moves of the settler), then my second city could be coastal and on this same river. In my experience rivers are a bit more rare on island maps so I'll want to get as much out of this one as I can.


Beyond that I'll be doing the obvious, archers and beserkers. Depending if we have any enemies on our landmass the archers may not see any action which is good because I have had little luck with early archer wars. The berserker is a good unit, and I will be heavily using galleys for movement, hopefully the map type means I will be able to get everywhere I want to go without having to deal too much with the 1 movement archer.

Tech wise, nothing in particular is important other than getting to MA quick.
It does look like we are playing a one trait civ this month since the island map and the gotm typically lean view on huts. But with luck you could hold off MA and pop some huts on nearby islands and pick up Monarchy and Republic. I'll be trying an as fast as possible research, with the river this shouldn't be too bad, and with the potential lack of early contacts this is pretty important.

Cracker do the AIs get 1 or 2 settlers on demigod open class ? As far as I can see the predator players are getting more information than we open class pansies are getting about the AI rivals. While its pretty easy to figure out where most of the AI attributes will fall in demigod open by splitting the differences between emperor and diety, could you post a table of them so we can get it clear in our minds when you have a moment please?

The first big question is how many huts will their be? Archipelago 66% H2O implies a very limit number of huts. I agree with the Cracker equalization with the nearby huts, but the expansionist advantage will be of limited advantage at best. We are still closer to Map Making thanks to pottery, but archipelago and expansionist is a bad mix.

It looks mostly like nearby grasslands - the question is any possible bonus tiles? The bonus warrior will go SW. My scout direction will most likely follow the river. I suspect this land is shield heavy to let the capital be the 20K city. The number one challenge will probably be to find city #2 to be the settler factory. By following the river, I am most likely to find city site #2.

I suspect we may have a GOTM first with the Vikings alone on our own island. Based on this I may only build one more scout. I haven't decided on this yet.

This is definitely an immediate 40-turn research project for writing. If we are on our on continent - we need Map Making ASAP. With our limited initial size less then 40 is not real viable for our first tech.

What I could not find is a clear definition of Demigod. Is it between emperor and deity, most like 30% AI discount. However, how many free units does the AI start with?

Will we find GOTM#21 resources / luxuries? GOTM#22 uses the exact same resource pack. Could we find lambs, goats, etc on this map. This is something to watch.

Additional Changes to upgrade V1.29f to play like PTW


A new civilization has been added to your game and named the "Vikings". The leader for the Vikings is Einar Ragnarsson and the graphics to support this personality come to us courtesy of Civfantics members Gael and Pdescobar. The Vikings are Expansionist and Militaristics in the current Firaxis view of the world and you begin the game with technologies of Pottery and Military Tradition.

Click to expand...

I guess the goal will be to hook up some horses and saltpetre and get those cavalry going...


Was this meant to be Warrior Code?

This is definitely an immediate 40-turn research project for writing. If we are on our on continent - we need Map Making ASAP. With our limited initial size less then 40 is not real viable for our first tech

Click to expand...

Yeah LK this is a tricky one. I have tried a test run with the vikings and its even worse than you think- I had forgetten that you also need to research alphabet. Its going to be along time before the vikings are setting sail in this game.

Well I just finished a game with the Vikings on Emperor with a cold climate and won with my first ever 100K culture victory, by accident of course . I was trying to milk it for a high score and do a conquest on the last city remaining I left, but never checked total culture.

As far as a 20K victory? I've never tried, but I will here and if I don't get it, hopefully, I'll get a victory another way, becasue getting only a 15K city isn't going to hurt you.

Here is a guide I will study this week.


Link to 20K victory

Well the map is relatively welcome...

There is:

Water (lake? ocean?) due west...

A resource (luxury? strategic?) to the east across the river...

A resource (luxury? strategic?) to the northwest...

And possible something to the southeast...

Scout either to the mountain in the northwest or down the river... undecided at this time... probably the former as I would like to irrigate/road the bonus grassland to the east so that is probably where my worker will go.

My settler will stay put unless there is a coast within a move to the west or cattle, et cetera on the periphery. Another reason for the scout to move northwest.

Maybe I will be able to finish this one... probably not so I should do the QSC which I haven't been able to submit yet (keep thinking I can finish!).

Would there be more added resources to this game?
It would be interesting to see that like in GOTM 21.

I also appreciated the new resources in gotm 21. I hope there will be more of that great stuff in the future. I do not envy all of you tournament participators in this game - achieving a culture 20 K single city victory - yikes!

I also suspect limited AI presence on the starting landmass. Early expansion and exploration will be key as always. One thing I want to highlight is the Viking UU. The Beserk can be upgraded from Archer but for a hefty 100g. On the other hand it’s only 20 shields to build an archer and one can have 20-50 by the time Invention gets discovered.

I have recently played Vikings on deity and the UU combined with a golden age really saved the day in that game. But one important aspect showed up: the need for Leonardo’s Workshop. It can save you up to 2,500g in a time where you would be happy only to have that much in your coffers.

Consequently I plan to prebuild Leonardo’s (save for unexpected things to show up in the game) early on. Ideally you would get a leader by that time but that’s a chance one should take, or not.