Civ4 GOTM56 First Spoiler

GOTM 56 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 56, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD.
• Please do not name civilizations that requires caravels to contact.

I took the Adventurer save since I thought an artillery in the acient age would be a lot of fun. Immortal level in Vanilla is usually too much for me, and given an island start I doubted I would get much enjoyment from my artillery if I played the Contender save. I guess my submission shouldn't count since I read who is qualified for Adventurer:

Players who might be interested in playing the Adventurer class game could be those players who might only feel comfortable playing at Warlord or Noble difficulty.

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Actually Warlord level would be a bit low for me.

But I'm more concerned about this:

To qualify for this class, you must not have finished in the top half of the field in any Civ4 GOTM.

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I think that would mean I don't qualify. So if my submission isn't accepted for that reason, I can live with it. Its better to have fun.

And I'm having it!

I settled in place, settled Prof Beffudlov, and teched fishing>sailing. I met Hatty quickly and couldn't wait... I sent my artillery and a warrior out to greet her. I was able to conquer her with that force. She had two cities, and I settled a thrid on her landmass. I did get quite a scare on her last defender... I took a 85% odds gamble to take the last city with my artillery... and won with strenght 1.6 left! Near disaster... but I won.

It may have been better if I had lost, though... then that stupid artillery would not have been distracting me from playing good strategy. Instead, all I was thinking was "I need Astro to kill some more", and kind of neglected expansion longer than I should have. Because when I finally settled the marble island (which IW revealed had Iron as well), many years had past. Unfortunate for me, since at the first border pop, I met Mansa, and had a culture bridge for galleys! I razed his jungle city south, but he had so many units that one artillery was not enough to take more cities and I had to build lots more units... and 1AD had arrived with me still stuck at 5 cities. Building the Great Lighthouse was not so great with my miltary bent, and nothing but domestic trade routes.

Mansa looks soft, though... so its inevitable I take his cities from him. But I will forge on with my Astro plans since I want to meet others and maybe trade... not to mention get some Great Lighthouse trade routes.

Slow going. I think I could have been better off without the artillery... but it is fun to play with. BOOOM!

KC, I've advised AlanH of your use of the Adventurer save, and he will rule on it soon. Unfortunately, I think you're right that you don't qualify (it is really not intended for someone at your level of play).

Rewarding to hear that you're having fun. Trust it will continue.

"that stupid artillery would not have been distracting me from playing good strategy" Yeah, that artillery piece has ADD and a low IQ.

Note that you settled the Prof. Be interested to learn how the professor was utilized by others. I turned him into an Academy when I tested the game, because I thought that would be the most common use. However, Erkon was kind enough to test the game for me, and he settled him as a super specialist.

Erkon also made this observation: ". . . every immortal player knows that the artillery unit will be used to conquer the nearby AIs, [and] that early exploration is vital . . ." How universally was this strategy was employed?

I think that would mean I don't qualify. So if my submission isn't accepted for that reason, I can live with it. Its better to have fun.

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I'm afraid that's the case Still, I'm pleased to hear you are enjoying CP's game

AlanH said:

I'm afraid that's the case Still, I'm pleased to hear you are enjoying CP's game

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ugh, well, you are the Law.

I thought with the different levels of games being offered that there was more leeway in selecting our game.
Adventurer level games don't count for the top 3 places, but it is nice to see them in the results.
I've probably finished in the top half at some point. I can lose at monarch and have won at immortal (by culture) and diety (the rediculously easy diety).

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I did poorly enough in this game that I have little desire to try future Vanilla/Warlords at Immortal or above. [OTOH the current BOTM at Nobel is too easy].
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Maybe I just discourage easily.

Gave Hatty time to build wonders, which she didn't. Artillery and warriors made slow (i.e. no) progress vs egypt. I attacked before reducing all the culture and the artillery was damaged. Took too long to heal and reduce culture - made peace.

Mansa has some wonders, lets take them. Now with swordsmen. Well, I captured the Pyramids, but lost the rest of my units (not the artillery). I have 2 cities and a newly captured city.

I was thinking I should have gotten archery early. Then attack Hatty with archers after reducing cultural defence and doing collateral damage.

Well, I will go try the contender WOTM now.

kcd_swede - have fun

I'm a fan of these special XOTM scenarios.
I believe this game's subtitle "Prof. Beffudlov excellent adventure" was a very good hint that our ordinary strategy game was turned into an adventure game, with increasingly difficulty steps (or levels).
Step 1: build a galley, kill nearby AI
Step 2: build a city, get a culture bridge to yet another AI
Step 3: ...(for the final spoiler)

Cactus Pete said:

Erkon also made this observation: ". . . every immortal player knows that the artillery unit will be used to conquer the nearby AIs, [and] that early exploration is vital . . ." How universally was this strategy was employed?

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I'm not an immortal player, so I used the 1st workboat on the fish instead of early exploring. When the galley was ready (turn 24) I lost precious turns exploring north instead of south. Even though I was able to get Hatty's 2 cities, conquering her as late as turn 61/1560BC. At some point I even lost the city next to stone, defended with 2 warriors, to a single egyptian archer. This probably cost me the pyramids (lost it by a handful of turns).

I was also late to settle the marble island (800BC) and to expand its borders (400BC), so I didn't meet Mansa until 250BC, the same year a civilization was destroyed elsewhere. At that point, I figured out Mansa was more valuable alive than dead - not that I had the tools to kill him anyways.

By 0AD I had Compass and was 2 turns from learning Calendar. I had 2 GS & 1 GM ready to bulb Machinery, Optics and part of CS, after getting Metal Casting as soon as Mansa finishes his Colossus ("we have our reasons"). Let's see what lies beyond the deep blue ocean...

I'm a fan of these special XOTM scenarios.

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Settled in place, renaming the Capitol as Beffudlovgrad Renamed the Artillery as Beffudlov's Big Gun Used GS to build an Academy.

I also explored north initially, founded Moscow on the small 3-tile island with the Marble. Found Hattie late, and have captured Heliopolis with Archers and Beffudlov's Big Gun. Hattie has 2 cities remaining on her little continent, Thebes and Memphis. Memphis is Jewish Holy City and has Pyramids! I may consider moving my capitol to Memphis after it capture.

Hmmm. Artillery wasn't as good as I thought it might be.

Still, looking on the bright side it's only 2 1/2 weeks till the next GOTM. Was an exciting 15 minutes, though.

Yes, settling near fish provides you with a bridge to Mansa after 1st border pop. Moreover, this bridge is easily detectable as there is food and commerce output NE from fish which can't be generated by marble island.
Actually, there is a bridge to some other AI, but it is invisible with simple boat patrol and requires either significant border pop or settling in a place one would never settle if not for the bridge.

I like the artillery so far, Hatty went down rather smooth. Mansa is a tougher nut, on 1 AD quite alive and kicking.

Lexad said:

Yes, settling near fish provides you with a bridge to Mansa after 1st border pop. Moreover, this bridge is easily detectable as there is food and commerce output NE from fish which can't be generated by marble island. Nice to have your work appreciated.
Actually, there is a bridge to some other AI, but it is invisible with simple boat patrol and requires either significant border pop or settling in a place one would never settle if not for the bridge.

I like the artillery so far, Hatty went down rather smooth. Mansa is a tougher nut, on 1 AD quite alive and kicking.

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He was tough in testing too.

Settled on grass. Why? to save time moving the workboat. Settled the GS, seemed like the obvious best choice.

Build worker(pause)-workboat(working PHF)-finish worker-warriorx2-galley-LH-GLH. Might have been better building a scouting wb first, so that I would not have sailed around the N and SW islands before finding Hatty.

Tech fishing-BW-Sailing.

I attacked hatty immediately, and got three cities, two workers and 16XP for the arty. Settled the obvious land bridge city (fish+marble) which had to whip a library to pop borders since I didn't research mysticism.

Traded a bit with Mansa, got to literature and built GLib. Then attacked with the artillery supported by a huge army of 1 archer+ 1 axe. Captured a barb city first, then Gao on the west coast, and here we are at 1AD. Working towards astro, just because

Cactus Pete said:

KC, I've advised AlanH of your use of the Adventurer save, and he will rule on it soon. Unfortunately, I think you're right that you don't qualify (it is really not intended for someone at your level of play).

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If the rule that KC quoted is current, then I should also be disqualified for choosing the Adventurer save. I, too, have finished in the top half of the field in previous games, but I thought the rules were more flexible, now.

In any event, for reasons I'll be posting in the Final Spoiler thread, the judge's ruling will make very little difference.

Trapper439 said:

Hmmm. Artillery wasn't as good as I thought it might be.

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I know what you mean! I thought my army of 1 warrior and the Arty would be invincible attacking a bunch of archers from a hill, but Hatty counter-attacked and they went down in a hail of arrows. So much for that plan.