Nobles' Club CXXXIV: Pacal of the Mayans

dalamb

dalamb

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May 9, 2006
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The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Pacal of the Maya, whom we last played in NC CI. The Mayans start with Mining and Mysticism.
  • Traits: Pacal is Expansive and Financial. EXP means +2 :health:, allowing bigger cities sooner if you can find happiness resources -- or build Ball Courts. It also gives faster granaries, harbours, and workers. The +25% bonus for producing workers only applies to :hammers:, not :food:, so you need to be working 4:hammers: to get the 5th. FIN gives +1:commerce: on tiles that already have at least 2:commerce:.
  • The UU: The Holkan, a Spearman that needs no resources to build, and gets immunity to first strikes. A Holkan rush on a neighbour who doesn't have axemen yet is weaker than an axe rush but might be feasible under some circumstances; you can get the rush going faster since you don't need to find and hook up copper.

  • The UB: The Ball Court, a Colliseum with +3:) instead of +1. Along with Pacal's +2:health: from EXPansive, it can help your cities grow more in the early game (relatively early, given that you need to research Construction first).
And the start:

Spoiler map details :
Hemispheres.
Spoiler edits :
Regenerated many times to get a non-ocean start with at least one of: gold, gems, or floodplains. Somehow this took a lot longer than I would have expected. Swapped our initial floodplain start tile with 1W. Swapped two leaders to give us a nice neighbour.
Spoiler which ones :
Freddy and Ramesses
Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:
There are no hard and fast rules here: fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do suggest that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards. You can post as often as you like; here's one suggestion:
  • 4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
  • 1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, where you're thinking of putting cities, etc)
  • 500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
  • 1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didn't, met other
  • continent if applicable, etc)
  • 1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
  • End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)
This is just a guideline. If you're trying to improve your game, then posting more frequent updates, in as much detail as you can manage, is the best way to get suggestions from other players. If you come to what seems like a major decision and you want some advice, post an update, regardless of what game-year it is.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number of stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps in the early days of the series, and all of you for playing.
Click to expand...
The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 134 Pacal Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.
Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :
In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Noble. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

For players on Monarch or above, you should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:
Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

  1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
  2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
  3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
  4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
  5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
  6. Exit the worldbuilder.
  7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.
Spoiler huts and events :
Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.
 

Attachments

  • NC 134 Pacal.zip
    200.7 KB · Views: 439
Arf must play :drool:

As if I did'nt have a couple of games on the queue ;(

To IU mapmaker can you please hold on for a sec. ? :D
 
Warrior SE for a choice?

Spoiler :
Too..

Spoiler :
Many...
Spoiler :
huts...
Spoiler :
:wow:
 
Let's prove once and for all that
Spoiler :
farms trump cottages :D
 
2nd city right on that marble I think.Take the corn and let the capital grow cottages.
 
That's a pretty decent start. Would be a fun game to play but I've promised myself not to touch Civ for a while.
 
JSS said:
That's a pretty awesome start. Would be a fun game to play but I've promised myself not to touch Civ for a while.
Click to expand...

Why? Just play this start ;)! Umm...well, I haven't played my own IU game myself.. and now you give us Pacal start with Floodplains, Gold and Elephants :)!
 
This looks awesome and I've never played as Pacal. Looking forward to this one immensely, what a start.
 
Robert FIN said:
Why? Just play this start ;)! Umm...well, I haven't played my own IU game myself.. and now you give us Pacal start with Floodplains, Gold and Elephants :)!
Click to expand...

I may lose my judgement after a couple of beers and find myself playing this time waster of a game again. :lol:

But for now I'll try to look away.
 
Looks like a good start. I estimate that a cottaged capital with Bureacracy and Oxford might even yield as much as 500 :science: which is really rare. Usually such starts mean that the rest of the land is crap, but let's see. I'll try this with the following settings:

Emperor/Normal/NHNE
 
Deity, second try.
Spoiler :
First try got rushed by a barb archer around 2300 BC :eek:

Reasonably good position this time with 8 cities, 29 pop, 5 forges.
Prioritizing aesthetics over currency was a mistake.
Math was bulbed.

15 farms zero cottage :cool:

Island city in-between ottoman and us will be settled in 2 turns.

 
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