April 2012 GOTM - Desert World

[GibsonS]

The thought was: "How would a game develop on a mostly desert world, with very view viable city-sites available?"

In general:
1. Most of the map is desert
2. Water sources are scarce, and not necessarily adjacent to viable city-sites
3. There are obvious city-sites available, some will take a lot of work to develop into successful cities.

Expect fierce competition for good city sites if you play with 7 civilizations!
(Not played it myself yet, but will be doing next weekend!)

[GoldBerg]

Originally Posted by GibsonS

The thought was: "How would a game develop on a mostly desert world, with very view viable city-sites available?" (...)

From 20 Years of Civ1 experience i can tell you:
the AI is not able to handle such a situation - so every rookie player is able to beat the AI even at King Level (if the scenario doesn't provide any connection to water) under such circumstances and will be able to irrigate a larger area, and the AI cities stay small.

The AI would not even try 'to bridge' 2 squares of sand with irrigation
(but i am not sure if the AI does not simply fake irrigation out of nowhere, if not connected)

[danheskett]

This one is a real killer! I have tried 3 different ways - first, I pick the best site I could, but can't cities above the 5 or 6 level.

On Emperor with 5, I keep getting taken out early in the game!

Any tips?

[loopinaloop]

I'll give it a try and report back in a week or two. Sounds interesting

[Theov]

Whoop whoop!

I'm highly confused.
Where are ze Zermans?! (the germans should be on the map, but I can't find them.)

[loopinaloop]

Originally Posted by Theov

Where are ze Zermans?! (the germans should be on the map, but I can't find them.)

Maybe they are still looking around to found their first city? Man, this map is so cool! Whoever made it, it's very interesting indeed. Forget city spamming, you are happy when you have a handful of thriving cities! It's hard to secure your borders when you have no coastlines.

The barbarians are hardcore! In the first game on this map I was looking for an unoccupied spot to found my civilization. That's right, I started in the middle of a desert! (a quote from a movie comes to mind, Fear&Loathing in Las Vegas) When I at last have found my city barbarians obliterated me!

Now, in the second game I've founded the third city and... SIX barbarian legions appeared. NEVER, in this game I saw this amount of barbarians, except for the goody huts. But barbs from huts disappear quickly, but not this one. I've lost my city

[Theov]

Originally Posted by loopinaloop

Maybe they are still looking around to found their first city? Man, this map is so cool! Whoever made it, it's very interesting indeed. Forget city spamming, you are happy when you have a handful of thriving cities! It's hard to secure your borders when you have no coastlines.

The barbarians are hardcore! In the first game on this map I was looking for an unoccupied spot to found my civilization. That's right, I started in the middle of a desert! (a quote from a movie comes to mind, Fear&Loathing in Las Vegas) When I at last have found my city barbarians obliterated me!

Now, in the second game I've founded the third city and... SIX barbarian legions appeared. NEVER, in this game I saw this amount of barbarians, except for the goody huts. But barbs from huts disappear quickly, but not this one. I've lost my city

This screenshot was not the end of the game. I defeated the Babylonians and haven't seen the Germans all game.
I searched all map - I haven't seen them... weird.
yeah the barbs are plenty. There are a lot of mountains too though...
I played most game all-tax. Almost all techs up to railroad and democracy I got from 1 trade early on and the rest from huts.

[Dack]

I went for diplomats, chariots and catapults. Then scoured the earth of the others.
Theov I see your screen has Total Score mime has Bonus Score .
I used 474.05 as King, seven opponents..

[loopinaloop]

Originally Posted by Dack

I used 474.05 as King, seven opponents..

King? Afraid of the extra-class? King doesn't count. :P

[Theov]

Originally Posted by Dack

I went for diplomats, chariots and catapults. Then scoured the earth of the others.
Theov I see your screen has Total Score mime has Bonus Score .
I used 474.05 as King, seven opponents..

Chariots, diplomats and some knights - that's about all I used too.

as you can see, I just switched to a democracy in my game... hence the unhappy people, because I was hunting down the Germans. They weren't anywhere to be found.