News: WOTM 20 Pre-Game Discussion

WOTM 20: Shaka's Dream Team

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/wotm20civ.jpg[/img]

Here's a somewhat different game, hot from the keyboard of Gyathaar.

You, as Shaka Zulu, have teamed up with Japan's Tokugawa and Aztec's Montezuma. Your rivals are two more teams of three AI leaders.

Game Details:

Game settings:
Civilization: Zulu (Leader: Shaka; Traits: Expansive/Aggressive)
Teamed with:
Rivals: 6 AIs in two teams of three
Difficulty: Monarch
Map: Fractal, Low Sea Level
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Epic (660 turns)
Options: Raging Barbarians, Complete Kills.
Victory Conditions: all enabled

Shaka:
Shaka is Expansive and Aggressive, and the Zulu start with agriculture and hunting. Expansive gives +2 health per city, and doubles the production speed for granary and harbor. Aggressive gives a free combat I promotion to all melee and gunpowder units, and allows double production speed of barracks (Ikhanda) and drydock.

Unique unit: Impi (replaces Spearman)
The fast Impi gets 2 moves per turn. It still gets +100% vs mounted units, and additionally starts with Mobility.

Unique building: Ikhanda(replaces Barracks)
The Ikhanda reduces city maintenance cost by 20%, but costs 10 more hammers to build than barracks.

Teamed Civs You also get the starting techs for Montezuma and Tokugawa, which are Hunting (you already have that), Mysticism, Fishing and the Wheel.

Starting screenshot
This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image of Shaka's starting area):



Here are links to full size images of the Aztec and Japanese starts:

The Aztec Start
The Japanese Start

Adventurer Class bonuses:

1. Mining: You start with the knowledge of mining.
2. Worker: You start with a worker (sharing a tile with the settler)

Challenger Class Equalisers:

1. No techs: You forgot everything I taught you, so you start without Hunting and Agriculture. You still get the other three team techs, though. Isn't Gyathaar kind?

To Enter the Competition:

As this game is a bit different, we're giving you a full week to discuss it here. You will then have six weeks to play it.

The competition will open on 23 October 2008. From that date, you'll be able to get the starting saves here. Use this page to submit your completed entry, which you must do by 4 December 2008.

Civ version

This game MUST be played in Warlords (NOT Beyond the Sword or vanilla Civ), patched to version 2.13, as modified by BtS version 3.13, and with the correct HOF mod version installed[/b].

Windows players
You can download version HOF-2.13.003 of the HOF mod here. Note that this is the new version of the HOF mod, and not the one used for WOTM 19. For game security reasons this HOF mod version requires you to be logged in with an account that has admin privileges when you are playing for your game to be a valid entry to the GOTM competition. You'll see a warning dialog if you attempt to start a session without appropriate privileges.

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

Mac players will also require the 2.13 patch, with HoF Mod version HOF-Mac-2.13.001.

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 towards the end of October for players to discuss what happens in their games. Do not discuss any details of your game outside those threads.

That's a fat start, to be sure. Thanx, guys!

This should be interesting, an entirely new kind of challenge. Are we supposed to read something into the fact that our team is a rogues gallery of the most aggressive AIs? Perhaps one of the teams consists of the scientific Civs and another a team of Cultural terrors?


Is it correct to assume that Tokugawa and Montezuma will be controlled by the AI! I have never played teams before so can anyone illuminate any differences or does it play like a Defensive Pact/Perm. Alliance from the start?

WOW, definitely a new twist! Thanks for finding ways to keep it fresh!

About the start...TOOOOO much food for 1 city...but not a lot of great alternatives for something to split it up either.

Awesome! I've been wanting something like this in an XOTM for a long time (but was too shy to ask for it).

All the crazy aggresives in one team though? 9 civs on a standard map? This is gonna be a bloodbath. And those starting positions? Geez... what's the catch????

Is it correct to assume that Tokugawa and Montezuma will be controlled by the AI! I have never played teams before so can anyone illuminate any differences or does it play like a Defensive Pact/Perm. Alliance from the start?

Click to expand...

Correct, its essentially the same as a PA right from the start. Connecting trade network with your teammates should be a high priority to share resources - our team has millions of 'em.

I prefer Monte's start even tho you only see Shaka's start in big screen when clicking on Monte and Toku's starts

It didn't seem necessary to give you full size images of the other two starts for pre-game discussion, as you can't dictate what happens on that terrain during the opening moves. However, if you want to see them, follow these links ...

The Aztec Start
The Japanese Start

kcd_swede said:

Correct, its essentially the same as a PA right from the start. Connecting trade network with your teammates should be a high priority to share resources - our team has millions of 'em.

Click to expand...

I've got a bad feeling that we're separated from our teammates though. It may be a while before this is possible.

I've got a bad feeling that we're separated from our teammates though.

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Yeah. Makes a quick WB for exploring the coast very attractive. On the bright side, making contact with the other teams will be a breeze.

Hmmm... I notice our AI friends have 3 units. A scout, a settler, and what else? Is it an archer on Monarch?

This looks interesting. Might have to give this one a shot. Monte and Toku are terrible techers, so we'll have to take the lead in that department.

I've been away from Civ for a while, so please forgive the newbie question, but can anyone remind me how the victory conditions work in a PA? Do we share territory, population, cultural cities, etc, toward the various victory conditions? Do our opponents?

I've been away from Civ for a while, so please forgive the newbie question, but can anyone remind me how the victory conditions work in a PA? Do we share territory, population, cultural cities, etc, toward the various victory conditions? Do our opponents?

Click to expand...

Yes. But you cannot culturebomb your PA's cities, for example.

First off, nice to see Godotnut back in CFC.

The game seems interesting, at least fun. I guess that a team with a human has a big advantage on AI teams, but we'll see.

Trade routes? hmm it's fractal, but i can bet at least Shaka needs Astro.
We can tech like crazy in this case, fight some minor war, then conquer the world. Or just try a peaceful victory?

I think i'll try to play this one too.

Looks interesting, I might try it. But the link for the starting save takes me to BOTM 11...

How about a Contender Test Game to try out the Team Features?

Interesting concept... quite excited to play this one actually! Good work!

Definitely will tech to keep my team up to speed with the other teams as they are likely to be brainiacs compared to our team...

Quite likely the opposition may be reachable only via Galleons also which would be a waste of our early warring abilities. However... the bright side is we have those RAGING BARBARIANS to fight off - so that will be FUN!!!

Quite a challenging map to make since I had to mirror the three nations, and mirror the arrangement on the map, and mimic the placement the computer does by default... more than triple the work - but, I sure need a practice at this type of game so I thought others would like to try also.

Maxit said:

Looks interesting, I might try it. But the link for the starting save takes me to BOTM 11...

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The link for the starting saves will work from 23 October, when the game starts.

first post said:

The competition will open on 23 October 2008. From that date, you'll be able to get the starting saves here

Click to expand...

When you try to go to a game release page that either doesn't exist yet, or you are not allowed to see yet, you are shown the one for the most recently released game - in this case BOTM 11.

JungleIII, thanx for the test games, mate!

The competition will open on 23 October 2008. From that date, you'll be able to get the starting saves here

Click to expand...

I read the posts about as well as I pay attention to all the details in my games. Looks like BOTM 11 is first.

Maxit said:

JungleIII, thanx for the test games, mate!

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No worries!

It sure is different playing teams... my first experience at this!

JungleIII

I'v found out 5 huts but no any AI))) Thanx for the test!

Does anyone know that you can tell your freindly AI what they mast learn, you can ask gold and any resources you need from them for free?

Press SHIFT and give them list tech you want to research (at least 2). In this case extra balbs will not go to a wrong techs.

A DoW will be interesting. Two DoWs will be All War. That means if Izzy refuses a bribe from Monty on T30 and Catty refuses one from Toku on T31, we're having a big party. Now is that possible?

Are you going for a cutlural victory, godotnut?

This setting looks really cool! And 1.5 months too, means I might actually complete one for once. And no pesky random events either. Too bad it's raging barbies, but I guess you can't have everything.

The teching strategies for this game will be really interesting to ponder. Major thanks to Gyathaar and AlanH for the very interesting setup.