News: GOTM 108 - Starts 1 November

GOTM 108: Cyrus of Persia.

Its time to start the cycle again in the low difficulties, all the way back to Warlords level.

Cyrus the great shouldn't face too many difficulties, its all a matter of speed.
Are there horses?
Will the AI even have archers so you can get the benefit of Immortals?

One thing that might complicate things is the option 'No City Razing'

Game settings:
Playing as: Cyrus of Persia
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Warlord
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No city razing
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Fractal (modified)
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium


Cyrus is Expansive and Creative, and you start with The Wheel, Agriculture and Hunting.

The Expansive trait gives +3 health/city and double production speed of Granary and Harbor

The Creative trait gives +2 culture/city each turn and double production speed of Colosseum and Theatre

Unique unit: Immortal (replaces Chariot)
The Immortal benefits from: gets defensive bonuses, can withdraw from combat (30% chance), and 50% combat bonus against archer units. This compares with the Chariot which has: does not get defensive bonuses, and can withdraw from combat (20% chance).


Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:
Adventurer players get a Gems on the hill SE of the settler, high commerce starts are always nice!

Challenger Class Equalizers:
You lose the scout, which should affect settling your 2nd and maybe 3rd cities.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 1 Nov 2014, 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 1 Dec 2014.

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

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), 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 or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

If you have not installed BtS, you will need to update the relevant DLL files in order to match the Locked Assets checks. These are available here.**

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the Mac HOF mod version 1.74.002 installed. You can download the Mac 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 your game outside those threads.

neilmeister said:

One thing that might complicate things is the option 'No City Razing'
Options: No city razing

Click to expand...

That won't impact my game much, I seldom raze cities. At warlords, those going for conquest should still be able to afford any cities they keep.

SIP looks good. But 1W on scout gains 3 grass hills for 1 hill and a forest. 6 grass hills with corn = Production Capital. Or SIP for super cottage capital.

1NW is another options. 1 turns faster start than 1W, and a bit of a hybrid, keeping enough hills for super productions (5 instead of the 7 from 1W), and a couple of extra cottage tiles.

Are the goody huts removed? Might have some relevance to those thinking challenger save.

Wow..Cyrus with a completely different set of traits...traits that are not as good as their BTS counterparts.

Scout move is easy. Move 1NE then 1SW. SIP looks fine here unless something shows itself. No need to overthink it.

High King J.J. said:

What, no stone on BFC, how can I build my Stonehenge to expand city borders?? Warlords is so difficult already!

Click to expand...

Oh that's easy. Just research up to the most powerful units you can while avoiding calendar. I think you'll be able to assembly line to build infantry (tanks would be ideal, but I don't think you can get those without calendar ). On warlords difficulty, the AI will be way behind in tech by the time you research that far. That means you'll be able to use your super-powerful infantry units to attack an AI that does have stone, and capture the stone. Then you'll be able to build Stonehenge very easily.

DynamicSpirit said:

Oh that's easy. Just research up to the most powerful units you can while avoiding calendar. I think you'll be able to assembly line to build infantry (tanks would be ideal, but I don't think you can get those without calendar ). On warlords difficulty, the AI will be way behind in tech by the time you research that far. That means you'll be able to use your super-powerful infantry units to attack an AI that does have stone, and capture the stone. Then you'll be able to build Stonehenge very easily.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see. Of course Stonehenge will still be available because no AI civ can possibly complete it before I tech to assembly line. Then my cities will get 3per turn instead of 2 and my borders will expand a few turns earlier. Oops, I revealed my secret strategy for culture victory...

Warlord level? No Deity this round? That means we have to wait <counts on fingers...> until next June?! OK, how about we only get a week for this game, then 2 weeks for Nooble, 3 for Prince, and then back to a full month for Monarch and higher?

Xcalibrator said:

Warlord level? No Deity this round? That means we have to wait <counts on fingers...> until next June?! OK, how about we only get a week for this game, then 2 weeks for Nooble, 3 for Prince, and then back to a full month for Monarch and higher?

Click to expand...

They seem to bounce up and down on the difficulty level as opposed to a progression up to Deity so you'll probably see it sooner than you think.

The challenge here is to reset my thinking back to Warlord to speed things up.

^ No, we usually don't do Vanilla Deity (and never Warlords). So, when we don't we substitute Warlord level. We cycle thru the difficulties fairly linearly for Vanilla/BtS with them offset so there aren't both high or low difficulty in the same month.

Heh. I dont remember:
1) when I played vanilla last time
2) when I played Persia last time
3) when I submitted the final save of any GOTM

So it is time to finish this one :]

I am so angry Cyrus has not those great Char+Imp combo Exp is not as good as in BtS and Creative is also weaker giving no bonus to libraries What a weak leader ;/ At least UU strong if horses nearby.

Also:
I like goody huts from time to time in competition game, but for haeven sake - not warlord difficulty! Chances to pop settler or worker or very advanced technology from huts are relatively high, especially with scout as starting unit!

enKage said:

Heh. I dont remember:
I like goody huts from time to time in competition game, but for haeven sake - not warlord difficulty! Chances to pop settler or worker or very advanced technology from huts are relatively high, especially with scout as starting unit!

Click to expand...

I guess that's a good hint that building early scouts could (unusually) be a good strategy!

DS, assuming there are AI near by, would it not be better to build a few warriors and rush someone? Do not have to wait for the cities to grow to size 2.

Head to BW first?

Thinking of a fast domination here.

Warrior rush is awsome on noble and below, but I would never start by pumping out warriors as you don't know:
- If you are isolated
- If you can only get to the AIs by sea
- If they start with archery/archers (as last BTS game)
- If they start on a hill, you could be in for trubble
Start by building a worker and scout surrounding area, if sutible and pre 2500BC (they start getting archers around 2000BC), go for it

Spoiler threads, please?

zbgayumn said:

Spoiler threads, please?

Click to expand...

I created them last night, but they are below the Stickies.

Well, was just thinking about playing Civ IV for the first time in 6 months or so, and I find a GOTM on a level I can actually handle! (I've never beaten Prince, and on BtS I lost my last Warlord game.) I'll try this one with the training wheels off -- Contender class for me! Just hope I can finish in time.