SGOTM 11 - tao

Welcome to your SGOTM 11 team thread. Please use it for all internal team communication, turn logs and discussions. Subscribe to it to receive notifications, and do not visit the other team threads for this game until you have finished. Please also subscribe to the Maintenance Thread for this game here, where teams and staff may post non-spoiler information of general interest. I hope you enjoy the game.

The starting saves will become available on the SGOTM Progress and Results page on September 9th, at midnight, server local time.

Thanks again to Gyathaar for coming up with the variant and developing the map.

You are Shaka of the Zulus, and your mission is to dominate the World. The world is standard sized, but crowded with 13 rivals grouped into several power blocks locked into mutual protection pacts. You are out in the cold.

All victory conditions are switched on, but the winning team will be the one that achieves a Domination victory earliest. Domination is defined for this game as 75% of world land plus coast, and 75% of world population.

Here's the start.


Map Parameters
Playable Civ - Zulu
Difficulty - Emperor
Opponents - 13: America, Arabia, China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Ottomans, Russia, Scandinavia.
World - Standard, Continents, 60% water, 4 billion years old, temperate
Barbarians - Roaming

The map is handbuilt, and therefore may not have a standard configuration.

Game mods:
The game uses the default rules as defined in the SGOTM Reference Thread, with the following modifications:

- Domination requires 75% of world territory and 75% of world population.

The SGOTM Mediterranean resources are included, as you can see from the starting screenshot. If you have played SGOTM 9 then you will be ready. Other players will need to download and unzip this small graphics mod pack. Details are provided in the SGOTM Reference Thread..

Please ensure that you have incuded the line: NoAIPatrol=0 in your conquests.ini text file.

Please visit the following links to ensure that you are adequately prepared, skipping references to PtW or Vanilla versions of Civ3.

The GOTM Reference Thread.
The SGOTM Reference Thread.

Notes:

A. ONLY Conquests version 1.22 (C3C) is supported for this SGOTM. All teams will compete for a single award.

B. All teams must play the sponsored variant - the laurels will be awarded for the fastest Domination victory. The wooden spoons will go to the team with the lowest final Jason score, having completed the game.

C. You MUST play from the start file assigned to your team. All saved game files uploaded to the server are parsed through software that extracts and archives data about your save, including reload count for each turn set.

Enjoy your game

Welcome back everybody. Let's try harder this time.

Maybe we need a little more planning and discussion than in the last game. As much as I dislike spreadsheeting the initial moves. What about this time with a 48 "got it" and 96 hour "play" rule? It will give us a little more time to discuss.

If you want a skip or swap, please tell us as soon as possible. We are of course flexible.

Do we we stick with the sequence:?

Eagerly anticipating the start.

Checking in.

That all sounds fine to me.

Checking in.

We can give that schedule a try, is it worth sticking with the 24 hour "Got It" time though so we know the next player realises that they have got the save, and just extend the play time to give longer for discussion?

Thinking about it a bit more, I suspect that you're right, Furiey. It is only once I'm sitting down examining the save that I become aware of any potential discussion points. As long as this gives other players a chance to comment in-between saves though.

Reporting in.

I seem to have trouble with settler factories (though I don't think it will be an issue with that start position), so if someone would rather take my position, that's fine. I really have no preference.

Hi everyone.

I too agree about 24 hr "got it". But we need to do some intra session consulting with each other on important decisions. During the last game we did not do that. Also lets discuss the strategy for each age before we get there.

With 13 other civs, I think our research path is going to be very critical.

We, Zulu know The wheel or WC and Pottery. These two will force us to research another first tier tech untill we meet others. Then we can get:
Masonry from America, Chinese....
CB from Arabia, Egypt....
The wheel/WC from China, Germany...
Alphbet from England, France...
BW from Germany, Korea, Ottomans.....

So as you can see we need to meet others as soon as possible to start on second tier techs. So where am I going with this?

We should build several scouts early to meet all the gang soon as possible.

Before that, we need to find out what is around us. Lets send the worker to the mntn to the north or east and the scout to the mntn 2SW. Then we should look at the map and discuss the settling location.

With 13 civs, I am afraid to waste even a single turn. But it may be worth the effort if something strong shows up.

Htadus said:

We, Zulu know The wheel or WC and Pottery. These two will force us to research another first tier tech untill we meet others.

Lets send the worker to the mntn to the north or east and the scout to the mntn 2SW.

Click to expand...

0% research and accumulate money for trading IMHO is a viable alternative on emperor.

I would place a very high probability on us staying near to the cow. Thus I tend to moving the settler to it, and then either the scout SW (if something interestimg shows up) on on the goat mountain. I don't think we want to move over the mountains north in such probably crowded environments. But maybe the save allows for some fog-gazing....

I was wondering about Settling away from the mountains so that we didn't potentially have to deal with stopping invaders getting on them making them very hard to kill. 1SE would still give all the bonuses we can see, puts both the cow and the goats in the first 9 tiles, plus looks like it would put us by water. I would however like to see what lies beyond the mountains so would probably send the Worker something like N and the scout 2SW. Unfortunately the Forest stops the Scout from moving to the ESE goats in 1 move. I look forward to trying out my pathetic fog-gazing skills when the save is out tomorrow morning.

I've just downloaded the save for a quick look, so here's the start at 200%. I would guess that's coast to the S considering the position on the minimap. It also looks like there are more mountains beyond those we see to the NW. I can't see any more bonuses in the fog, but then I'm not much of a fog gazer.

We know Pottery and Warrior Code.

With the Impi as our UU we could be heading for a despotic golden age. Do we try and avoid that or just go with it? The Impi could be useful with so many other Civs around, and if it's going to be a scramble from the start maybe it would be better to accept and plan for it.

Got it.

Looked at it. And I couldn't see anything relevant in the fog.

1. 4000bc

Moved the worker to the cow - mountains southwest.

Moved the scout S: this is coast; moved E: more coast.

Moved settler SE - coastal position allows to build curraghs.

2:scout E - NE: sees mountains N of us, coast and gras E.

I say we settle on the current location.

Agreed on the settlement location, looks like there are fewer mountains than I guessed, but otherwise pretty much the same.

Looks like we won't get water to that cow.

Settle in place agreed.

Have you checked the eastern coast to see if it's fresh? If not, then it looks like the se is a peninsula. If you can't get water to the cow, might as well mine it. Agree with settling at current location.

We should decide on research path (if any), and what type of government we want. A despotic GA might not be so bad if it helps us get to that government quicker.

It is 3300bc. We met India and China both knowing alphabet, bronze, masonry, wheel, cb.

Traded for alphabet, got masonry from hut.

What to research next?

• writing towards (philosopy?, literature? map making?) or
• mathematics for trading?

Opinions?

I wonder if min Writing would be worth a shot? We have a low income due to no river so I would imagine that max would not give it much quicker anyway.

Tone said:

I wonder if min Writing would be worth a shot?

Click to expand...

We currently have 64g at break-even. Next turn, we will have our 1st settler.

My estimate is that min research will delay writing/math by 10-15 turns. Too much IMHO.

0: 4000bc
Moved the worker to the cow - mountains southwest.
Moved the scout S: this is coast; moved E: more coast.
Moved settler SE - coastal position allows to build curraghs.

1: 3950bc
scout E - NE: sees mountains N of us, coast and gras E.
worker starts road; Zimbabwe founded starting scout working cow
max research on alphabet (we want curraghs)

2: 3900bc
scout E seas sheep

3: 3850bc
scout NE in the desert strip - water on both sides

4: 3800bc
road done, start mine; scout N

5: 3750bc
zzzzz

6: 3700bc
Z builds scout2 starts warrior; s1 explores N; s2 E

7: 3650bc
zzzzzz

8: 3600bc
jungle spices in the N; 20% lux to prevent riot

9: 3550bc
Zimbabwe build warrior starts settler; warrior fortifies as mp; lux to 0%
s1 meets Indian spear; Gandhi knows bronze, masonry, alphabet, wheel, cb, lacks pottery, but does not want to trade

10: 3500bc
s1 sees goody huts; worker on bg

IBT borders expand and we see nothing but desert, hills, and mountains north of Zimbabwe

11: 3450bc
worker s road; s1 pops hut getting 25g; s2 continues SE

12: 3400bc s2 on mountain - "end of the world" reached

13: 3350bc: s1 finds China; s2 sees huts

14: 3300bc: road done, start mine; mm to work roaded bg, as growth will give shields to complete settler (gaining 1 commerce)

trading time:
China gives alphabet for pottery, 29g
India gives 58g for pottery
set research to cb (cheapest tech) and pop hut hoping for writinng but getting masonry; there is fresh water in the southeast.
start research on writing

15: 3250bc
Zimbabwe b settler s granary; settler goes east (will settle near bg); s1 goes N, s2 comes "home"

16: 3200bc
zzzz

17: 3150bc
Ulundi founded; starts work on curragh, worker, warrior

IBT Korean settler, spear appear in the north

18: 3100bc
s1 finds Korea knowing also bronze, wheel, cb

19: 3050bc
s1 notices Koreans founding P'yongyang, pops hut and we learn cb
India has 2 workers for sale, but we don't have the money

20: 3000bc
worker on forrest to chop it towards granary; s2 goes to explore the south

Summary:
We met India, China, Korea and they are in a locked alliance.
F10 says we did not yet meet Americans, English, Vikings, Germans, French, Russians, Ottomans, Egyptians, Arabs, Japanese.

Outlook:
Strange that we met only 3 of 13 civs. Thus a number of them should be on other continents and (suicide) curraghs making contacts would be a big help. We seem to have no immediate neighbors, thus should try to rex.

Advice:
Chop the forrest towards the granary. See to adjust groth of Zimbabwe to pop 3 by mm if necessary to occur at least 1 turn after the granary is finished to utilize it to maximum effect.
Ulundi is on curragh, worker, warrioe queue.
Explore the south and then the north.

Dbear (up nect)
Furiey
Htadus
Tone
tao (just played)

10 turns each from now on

Will download and look at via CivAssistII. My only comment so far is that on emperor I generally like to have the MPs in place before building curraghs or workers.

Ok, I've looked at it in CivAssistII, and I've worked out a table for my 10 turns

Zimbabwe Ulundi
pop growth,prod. sh. pop growth,prod. sh.
0: 1 +3,3 15 1 +2,3 6
1: 1 +3,3 18 1 +2,3 9 worker starts chop
2: 2 +3,5 23 1 +2,3 12
3: 2 +3,5 28 1 +2,3 0 curragh-->worker
4: 2 +3,5 33 1 +2,3 3
5: 2 +3,5 48 1 +2,3 6 chop finished, worker moves
6: 2 +3,5 53 1 +2,3 9 worker chops
7: 2 +3,5 58 1 +2,3 delay, hit pop 2 next turn.
8: 2 +3,5 0 1 +2,3 0 grain-->settler, worker-->MP
9: 3 +2,7 5 1 +2,3 3
10: 3 same 22 1 +2,3 6 worker finishes chop

I plan to have worker move to other forest to chop to hurry settler along. Turn 9's growth may be +3,6 if the forest chop reveals BG.