News: BOTM 101 --Starts Feb 10--

sorry about the short warning...

BOTM 101: Elizabeth versus Dr Moreau

Doctor Moreau is located on a large island in your inland sea. No diplomacy is possible with this madman, as the Moreauns are a Minor Civ - that is to say ALL civilizations are always at war with Dr Moreau. Since he won't get any trade benefits, I helped him out with a few starting techs. You don't need to encounter him in any way to win the game, but... it might be a good idea, since he took ALL the animals on the map with him to the island. His island is the only place you have any chance of finding: deer, fur, ivory, HORSES, cows, sheep, pigs, or whales. On the bright side, you won't need Astronomy to get there, as it is a short trip by galley. However, be forewarned... Dr Moreau has ben conducting some ethically questionable experiments on the animals, so you may encounter some peculiar resistance from the islanders. (No sharks with lasers on their heads, though... that's a different Doctor.)


Game settings:
Playing as: Elizabeth of England
Rivals: 6 AI (of which one is a minor civ)
Difficulty: Immortal
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: no barbarians, permanent alliances, no huts, no events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Inland Sea
World Wrap: Flat map (no wrap)
Mapsize: Standard


Your traits are Philiosophical and Financial
and you start with knowledge of FISHING, and MINING



Unique unit: Redcoat (replaces Riflenan)
+25% vs. Mounted Units
+25% vs. Gunpowder Units

Unique building for the English; Replaces Bank
+65% gold
Required to build Wall Street

Starting screenshot

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






Adventurer Class bonuses:
N/A


Challenger Class Equalizers:
N/A

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 10 Feb 2016, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 10 Mar 2016.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the BUFFY mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.


Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the Mac BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the Mac BUFFY 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 your game outside those threads.

Looks like fun!

So, should we pick up two shinies settling NE with dry corn, or take double corn? Warrior 1S to see if there's something extra down south, I suppose.

Do you need to kill a minor civ for conquest or does it count as barbarians?

nocho said:

Looks like fun!

So, should we pick up two shinies settling NE with dry corn, or take double corn? Warrior 1S to see if there's something extra down south, I suppose.

Do you need to kill a minor civ for conquest or does it count as barbarians?

Click to expand...

Minor Civs count as barbarians as far as conquest victory is concerned. You can see when you start the game that for conquest victory there are 5 rivals to meet and defeat.

Yay, you give us a start with 2 commerce-resources . I love you swede . I already wanted to complain, that we either get maps that are plain horrible or maps that have so much that it's already too much, but instead should have a little more . Inland Sea also is one of my absolute favourite maps . And as I know how evil you are swede, I'll ofc. walk NW with the Settler to settle the 5 further riverside Gems that are below the fog of war .

And did Moreau also take all the sea food? Or aren't fish, clams and crabs considered animals?

So hunting and AH are useless for a long time, interesting twist.

This start looks gorgeous.

I guess we're in the SE corner of the map but I'd check on that before making any settling decision.

Here's a test map. Maybe one tile on the outskirts isn't quite right with river placement but I think it's otherwise OK.

Edit: SIP or settle NE? NE would be giving up 3 forests (maybe as few as 1 depending on what's in the fog), grass river tiles about the same, gaining the silver (1F2H7C) but losing the floodplains (3F3C with cottage-->more C over time). 2 fogged tiles in the BFC if settling NE--any resources? 1 turn delay in settling, another turn delay in the worker moving an extra tile to farm the corn. My gut says SIP but my starts are often inferior to others...

Island probably has bears with horns, as in, well-promoted.

nocho said:

And did Moreau also take all the sea food? Or aren't fish, clams and crabs considered animals?

So hunting and AH are useless for a long time, interesting twist.

Click to expand...

They are animals, but not the type which particularly appeal to vivisectionists... and besides, when he tried to collect those, they all swam away (mind those swimming clams!) J/K

Seafood is not on the island (sorry, no grasland forest fish tiles), and some may be acessible from the mainland.

LowtherCastle said:

Island probably has bears with horns, as in, well-promoted.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, interesting. I'd assumed when I read the starting post that we'd find cavalry or something on the island, but thinking about it, well-promoted animals would fit better with kcd_swede's description.

Worst case - if it's a bear with every conceivable promotion then - I haven't done the maths, but I'd guess you'd need at least a swordsman to stand a good chance of winning a battle. But maybe a swordsman won't be enough for whatever other units Dr Moreau can build with the techs he's been given?

Normal barbarian animals won't enter cultural boundaries. I wonder if the same is true for animals controlled by a minor civ? If (and it's a big if) that's the case, then we'll only need to survive on the island long enough to pop a city down to be safe from them.

I'm also guessing that minor-civ-controlled animals don't randomly disappear after a while like normal barbarians, so there's no chance of finding they've all died off before we get to the island

DynamicSpirit said:

I'm also guessing that minor-civ-controlled animals don't randomly disappear after a while like normal barbarians, so there's no chance of finding they've all died off before we get to the island

Click to expand...

I'd expect a certainty that any starting animals would have died off before we get to the island. Animals start disappearing when barbarians start appearing. I didn't think AI or civ controlled animals were an exception. I know barbarian animals disappear. I would expect the minor-civ to behave like barbarians.
Perhaps this should be tested?

kcd didn't say there were animals on the island, just "islanders" perhaps derived from animals. I'm thinking Humbearbear.

or ManBearPig

No barbs, permanent alliances are settings to remember.

Double commerce is really strong, but corn is dry. Maybe settling 1 SE or 1S and grabbing double commerce with first built settler might be stronger if you're planning on going late.

1NW of wet corn looks interesting to me. I prefer the food over commerce early. Just get out a quick first settler for the commerce and corn share. Looks like that spot has some river going on.

lymond said:

1NW of wet corn looks interesting to me. I prefer the food over commerce early. Just get out a quick first settler for the commerce and corn share. Looks like that spot has some river going on.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Seems the best place to settle.
"No barbarians" is also a buff to going there. No need to invest in defenders/fog busters, just workers and settlers so the food comes in handy.

Settling on the plains hill is also an option. Especially if the warrior finds goodies T1 or 2.

P.S. Great intro+scenario kcd_swede!

lymond said:

1NW of wet corn looks interesting to me. ... Looks like that spot has some river going on.

Click to expand...

Er, yeah, that tile was one of those "on the outskirts" and of no importance. You're not supposed to settle there! I'm too lazy to fix the test game but I think the only effect is that your first corn doesn't get hooked up immediately as it should. I tried your suggestion and I get a settler out T36, about 6T sooner than with SIP (remember, I'm sucko at the early game so both can/should likely be improved a fair amount) and planted him 1W of the silver. Comparing things at T45 the double-corn site is down 231 beakers but has 4+2 pop vs nearly 4, 2 workers vs 1, 0 granary vs 1, 24 bpt/-3 gpt vs 21 bpt, 1 cottage vs 3.

Starting techs were Agr --> Wheel. SIP then went Pots --> BW --> Writing --> partial Alpha. Double corn tried Wheel --> Pots but with so little early research it took forever to then get BW for whipping and mining so I went back with Wheel --> BW --> Pots --> partial Writing. Still had to build roads for ~5 turns to kill time before chopping was enabled.

The rough summary is I got that 2nd city quite a bit faster and an extra worker but at the cost of a lot of research (=cottages). At T45 the workers are hitting their stride and cottages/research should blossom soon. But will the AI have settled by the gems in the meantime? It's only one tile and there may be other power tiles nearby in the fog but I would be sad to lose that site with all its grass/river/forest tiles. Interesting dilemma. Going for the food-heavy commerce-light site is not something I'd normally think of but I'd like to learn some new tricks so maybe I'll try it. Any thoughts Lymo and Rusten would like to share?

My thoughts?
Me see river corn! Me want! Me settle over there!

It's that simple. I have a hard time seeing any other choice competing. Best tile in the game. It has to be picked up somehow, even if it means settling on the other corn (I don't actually recommend this).

To be a little more refined: It's already clear that commerce won't be a bottleneck with Liz+rivers so I will go for production.

Interesting start in terms of what compromises people make. Food? Commerce? Both? Rivers?

We'll know a good deal more after moving the warrior onto the plains hill (he won't reveal much useful on the green hill). If there are more green river tiles to the SW, then settling on that forest NW of corn would be tempting. But I'm also tempted by commerce by settling NE of the starting spot. I like green hills, and moving away from them to the wet corn site will miss out on both. The extra food will compensate though, but the question is whether you need one of the corns for a 2nd city anyway. Tough call.

As for the island and its inhabitants, I assume there could be some unique units, maybe high level ones too. Ballistas, Cataphracts, Conquistadors? I presume you can't actually make new units, like 10 strength lions of whatever -- and they'd probably just die out anyway if they count as "barbs". Plus, barbs are off in the settings. I should pay attention to that, and not play 50-odd turns again thinking there are barbs when none will ever appear

Xcalibrator said:

Double corn tried Wheel --> Pots but with so little early research it took forever to then get BW for whipping and mining so I went back with Wheel --> BW --> Pots --> partial Writing. Still had to build roads for ~5 turns to kill time before chopping was enabled.

Click to expand...

Why would you get wheel before BW? The way I would play this start would be:
worker -> warrior -> size 4 settler (whip)
worker farms both corns and then chops a forest into settler. You want to spend as few turns as possible trading 1 food for 1 hammer (making settlers/workers)

This was my overall plan, but as actions speak louder than works I ran it in your test game. The micro works out, the chop comes in just in time for the earliest settler. Only 2 turns spent before 2-pop whipping compared to 4 with regular production.

The overflow then goes into a worker which is later 1-pop whipped. Next turn the corn will go to York while mining the gems.

Compared to you I have a settler available on T32 and T35 2nd worker. Now to improve and work tiles.

Images:
I can't believe I actually played a test game.

Note: I removed forest in WB from the tile York was settled on as there's no forest there in the original game (saves 1 turn to settle).