News: GOTM 72 - Starts 2 November

GOTM 72: Julius Caesar

The mighty legions are becoming bored and restless, if their grievances are not soon met they will revolt, unless of course, you can keep them occupied. Your task is to find things for the famed Roman Legion to do, I'm sure it will not be too difficult as the world is seething with 6 so-called civilizations.


Game settings:

Civilization: Rome (Leader: Julius Caesar; Traits: Organised and Expansive)
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Immortal
Map: Snaky Archipelago
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Sea Level: Low
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: Aggressive AI, Complete Kills. Most Goody Huts have been removed.
Victory Conditions: all enabled

Julius Caeser:

Julius Caesar is Organised and Expansive ; starting with Fishing and Mining. As you are Organised you get Civic upkeep reduced 50 percent. Double production speed of lighthouse and courthouse. Being Expansive, you get +3 health per city. Double production speed of granary and harbor.


Unique unit: Praetorian(replaces Swordman)

Compared to the Swordman this unit has a cost of 45 instead of 40, a strength of 8 instead of 6, it can be built with the knowledge of Iron Working and of course, Iron.


Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:

1. Servants: You start the game with a Worker and one additional Warrior. The Worker is with the Settler, the additional Warrior is with the first Warrior.

Challenger Class Equalisers:

1. Deity: You play the game at Deity difficulty, although AI will receive Immortal starting units and you will score as if playing on Immortal.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open on 2 November 2011. From that date, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.
Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 1 December 2011.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Civilization 4 (NOT Warlords or BTS), patched to version 1.74, and with the HOF mod version 1.74.004 installed. You can download the HOF mod here. Players using Windows Vista are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Civilization 4 (NOT Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the Mac HOF mod version 1.74.002 installed. You can download the HOF 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 the game outside those threads while it is in progress.

Please write here or send me a Private Message for any technical queries, eg. if you have trouble opening the game. Do NOT post in this thread once you have successfully opened the starting save.

Bless you, neilmeister! This oughta be fun. Snaky Archipelago seems to have decent galley connectivity between continents (for the patient), particularly with Low sea level. Decent food at the start--settle in place and leave all those hills for an iron mine?

Looks like a fun game!
I'm inclined to settle 2N, on top of marble for the 3 on city center. Hopefully I'll get COL from Oracle for the cheap CHs in the cities our praetorians will be conquering. That is, if the immortal barbs don't ruin my plans!

Conquistador 63 said:

I'm inclined to settle 2N, on top of marble for the 3 on city center.

Click to expand...

That's a good spot too. But we are starting with the knowledge of fishing. Maybe I'll first move the warrior southeast to see if there's more fish.

The mighty Romans - this game looks really interesting.

Settling on marble is tempting...I'll follow toller pretzl's suggestion and have a look for seafood.

Don't normally bother with immortal but who can resist the lure of Praetorians?

I'm intrigued by this....

Most Goody Huts have been removed.

Click to expand...

Tempted by the 3 hammers on the marble for sure, but 1S or 1SW looks decent too depending on seafood. Still thinking of settling the marble first though. With corn, 3 hills and a cow this city will have no trouble churning out a mighty army.

Immortal is way beyond my skills, but might give it a try.

Settling the marble seems the way to go.

On a Monarch level, I might go for the PH 1SW and the PH to the NE of marble for a fast second city. Judging from the comments, though, that might not work on Immortal due to massive (or early?) Barb assault.

Is there anyone willing to share some info on Barbs behavior when Immortal?

Certainly looks interesting. Must we delay a day?

FiveRings said:

Is there anyone willing to share some info on Barbs behavior when Immortal?

Click to expand...

I think the barbs could enter our borders around t50 (~1900 BC)... but better test it

Hopefully fogbusting with warriors will be sufficient.

If we are splitting hairs, though:

neilmeister said:

GOTM 72: Julius Caeser

Being Expansive, you get +2 health per city.

Click to expand...

I thought it was Caesar, not Caeser?
According to the starting screenshot we get +3 instead of +2
But who can remember all the differences between different expansions anyway?
Not me, I'm and senile.
BTW, we need a smilie :senile:
Is there a thread where one can wish for specific smilies?

I'm tempted to just SIP, first checking warrior SE for fishes, we wishes.
But the marble is too marbelous to pass by. Unless hidden seafood is revealed I head for the hill.

If only real life was like Civ4, there'd be no corruption on the Hill in DC...

High J.J.

Sorry for the 1 day delay, I was a bit late setting this one up.

You guys are the best spell check ever

If have fixed the typo in Caesars name.....

I took the Expansive text directly from the Info Centre, which says +2 health, but maybe it should be +3.

High King J.J. said:

If we are splitting hairs, though:


I thought it was Caesar, not Caeser?
According to the starting screenshot we get +3 instead of +2
But who can remember all the differences between different expansions anyway?
Not me, I'm and senile.
BTW, we need a smilie :senile:
Is there a thread where one can wish for specific smilies?

I'm tempted to just SIP, first checking warrior SE for fishes, we wishes.
But the marble is too marbelous to pass by. Unless hidden seafood is revealed I head for the hill.

If only real life was like Civ4, there'd be no corruption on the Hill in DC...

High J.J.

Click to expand...

I think this is not the first time you whine about a senile smiley, HKJJ. Let me suggest a weak alternative: the combination of .

Please, don't construe my words as offence. I have read a few of your comments and am a great admirer of your clear way of thinking. I guess if you are , then I am * And that's not to imply anything about how I think, of course...

srad said:

I think the barbs could enter our borders around t50 (~1900 BC)... but better test it

Hopefully fogbusting with warriors will be sufficient.

Click to expand...

I'll give it try then, esp. if we get some more seafood around both - or one of the - potential SPs; thanks for the helful info! 43 turns should be enough to crank up a settler using the first warrior to fortify on the Northern SP, and then get some more warriors to defend. Too bad that Romans were known for their conqueror's skills...

About the health, see the excellent list in
"Game Play Differences Between Expansion Packs"
(someone skillful could add a direct link to the thread but it's stickied on this GOTM forum anyway)

I just checked the starting screenshot again and there it is: our leader is named Julius Caeser, playing as Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire. So I was wrong, we are playing as Caeser, the forgotten, kept in he dark basement, evil twin of Caesar. Or simply from another, parallel universe populated by evil twin -versions of ourselves.

FiveRings said:

thanks for the helful info!

Click to expand...

You are welcome. My posts are of course made by an and so it's fair to call them infernal

My clear way of thinking? You must be almost as as I to think that.

BTW, what Five Rings are those? I know of the Three, the Seven and the Nine, and the One to rule them all. And the Ring of Gaxx the demilich. And the Ringworld. But five? maybe? Or what Musashi taught? But Musashi was sunk in the Battle of the Leyte Gulf in WW2...

Another day to wait?
Spoiler warning, SG1, SGÅtlantis


Or I'll just freeze myself with instructions to thaw tomorrow morning, it worked on Eric Cartman, right?

High J.J. over and out.

My apologies, please note the corrected options. Copy/paste error.

Waiting for the save file...

Maybe this will be my first win on Vanilla Immortal.
Archipelago is like a level easier than pangea. We should be able to get a snake to ourselves. Then take on the AIs one at a time. Vanilla AI isn't very good at invasion.
But their bonuses are huge.

High King J.J. said:

You are welcome. My posts are of course made by an and so it's fair to call them infernal .

Click to expand...

I am sorry for the spelling mistake - these come up much too often in my posts as I am so lazy - but you might have noted that the text was not referring to your post.

High King J.J. said:

My clear way of thinking? You must be almost as as I to think that.

Click to expand...

I guess your combination of smileys conveys the meaning much better than mine. Now I remember having seen it before: sorry for the unintended fake!

I prefer not to compete for the title of "the most senile", partly because - in my understanding of this blessed and blissful state of mind - one either is senile or isn't...

High King J.J. said:

BTW, what Five Rings are those? I know of the Three, the Seven and the Nine, and the One to rule them all. And the Ring of Gaxx the demilich. And the Ringworld. But five? maybe? Or what Musashi taught? But Musashi was sunk in the Battle of the Leyte Gulf in WW2....

Click to expand...

A reference to Musashi's book, and you must have known him very well and for an incredibly long time to be sure he was on the battleship named after him!

High King J.J. said:

Another day to wait?
Spoiler warning, SG1, SGÅtlantis

Spoiler :

Maybe if I built a Stargate and dialled through the Sun at the moment of a solar flare, I could end up in tomorrow and did not have to wait...

Click to expand...

I have seen but few of the SG episodes but your reference to the operation of the gates there seems to be very reminiscent of a notorious reference to Voltaire's words in Candide. For the same reason, I guess.

Warning:



Aggressive AI? Good thing we are the evil twin of Caesar then. Cry "Wheaton" and let slip the dogs of war! (Big bang theory season 2 reference, if anyone cares)
Complete kills? Conquest victory could be delayed if one needs to hunt down every last explorer and caravel. Good thing I suck at warmongering anyway.

Sorry for my long ranting (I do love this smilie)

High J.J. out

^thanks for pointing that out

Aggressive AI, Complete Kills

Click to expand...

How did I miss that?

Agressive AI will slow down the AI teching, but also slow down our relations and trading. It gives the AIs an anti-human bias. I lost the Monarch game with agressive AIs.

I do like archipelago, this will be fun (if it isn't too hard)

Aggressive AI are the least of my problems. Me, myself and I are having a very hard time agreeing upon a strategy.

I want to settle on Marble, the other two are not too sure about that. But we all agree to build a worker while learning agriculture if we settle on Marble. I think I am gaining ground here . The map call for circumnavigation and that should be a priority. So the 3rd or 4th build should be a WB interchangeable with a settler. Warrior is second on the list to build. From there each want to do his own.

I want to do something different for a change and use GP’s to bulb my way to CS. I want to skip Masonry and tech Mysticism for SH, BW, Mono, PH for Oracle, Writing and Math. The goal is to Oracle currency. for most parts, Me is agreeable, however instead of Math, Me want Alphabet. Myself on the other hand is being a major wimp. Myself want to do the basic Oracle for MC while still bulbing the way to CS. So I have no idea who will prevail.

Well here goes nothing.