News: GOTM 102 - Egyptian Fantasy - Starts 5 May

GOTM 102: Egyptian Fantasy

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/gotm102civ.jpg[/img]

Egyptian Fantasy! Can you survive deity? Yes, I get to torment you all with another deity challenge. With an all-land map it's likely to be a big, dirty, fight almost from the first turn. So, basically, the complete opposite of the fantasy in the picture for this game! There is just one thing in your favour: You can build powerful war chariots. And I've edited the starting area to make sure that you really will be able to build them. Well, that's assuming you don't get too tempted by luscious golden bars of pure - ummm - gold.

As usual for deity, anyone is welcome to take the adventurer save irrespective of your level. If you don't feel comfortable on deity, think you're more likely to enjoy playing adventurer, and don't care about not being eligible for awards (or don't believe you'd actually win any awards anyway) then I say, go for it!

Game settings:
Playing as: Hatshepsut of Egypt
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Deity
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: None (Goody huts removed from near the start)
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Fantasy realm, with logical resource placement
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium

Barbarians don't have archery (because it's fiddly to add it in and I'm lazy), so the first barbarians should be warriors.

Hatshepsut is Spiritual and Creative, and you start with The Wheel and Agriculture.

The Spiritual trait gives no anarchy and double production speed of Temple

The Creative trait gives +2 culture/city each turn and double production speed of Colosseum and Theatre

Unique unit: War Chariot (replaces Chariot)
The War Chariot benefits from: base strength = 5, and immune to first strikes. This compares with the Chariot which has: base strength = 4, and not immune to first strikes.


Starting screenshot

This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):




This image was taken with the adventurer save so you can see where the horses are. If you are not playing adventurer, you won't see them until you research animal husbandry.

Adventurer Class bonuses:
Instant war chariots! You start knowing hunting and animal husbandry. You also have a worker, starting on the same square as the settler.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
'I don't need help to win on deity!' The gold and the eastern horse in the starting area have been removed. (The southern horse is still there)

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 5 May 2014, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 5 Jun 2014.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the HOF mod version 1.74.004 installed. You can download the HOF mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

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.**


Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the Mac HOF mod version 1.74.002 installed. You can download the Mac HOF mod here.

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

And apologies for the late start by the way. We had some staff availability issues (inevitable from time to time when these games rely on volunteer staff who have outside lives too )

Pleased to see another GOTM. Was thinking maybe the string had finally run out.

Understand staffing issues. Is that also why results for #100 have not been put up?

Basically, yes. They should be published soon though.

And I don't think you need to worry about GOTMs. They'll (hopefully) continue for as long as there are enough people wanting to play them.

Well think this might be quite a tough game..

Not sure whether to move towards the gold or not but very likely to SIP and tech ah - mining.

DynamicSpirit said:

As usual for deity, anyone is welcome to take the adventurer save irrespective of your level. If you don't feel comfortable on deity, think you're more likely to enjoy playing adventurer, and don't care about not being eligible for awards (or don't believe you'd actually win any awards anyway) then I say, go for it!

Click to expand...

Alright! I only have a few days available to play Civ this month. Maybe I will "go for it!"

Adventurer Class bonuses:
Instant war chariots! You start knowing hunting and animal husbandry.

Click to expand...

I was hoping for something like Emperor level.
Now I still have to compete at Deity level, just with an early war advantage.
oh well, Maybe winning at deity requires early successful war, something I don'tdo often. This will enable it. And two cities to take.

Settling NW gets gold, deer, and wheat in BFC. But no horses, they are still unavailable after 2nd border pop. (need 500 culture)
W doesn't get them until 2nd border expand (100 culture).
I think I will take adventurer and SIP (if I make time to play).

I likely will settle in place... I love gold in the BFC for a fast research start when I am planning to Oracle-CS or some similar start, but obviously that is NOT an option on Diety. On Diety, we will NOT keep up with the AI in tech irrespective of having Gold around. The first war will almost certainly be with war chariots, so that only requires researching AH (I might actually go hunting-AH, so save on AH, and get the deer as a second food square.) Worker first seems obvious.... Then Mining, BW, to get some productiong of Chariots, and go take some cities... The palace along should provide enough tech power to acheive this.

For the non-Adventurer saved games, it is good to know where the Horse Resource will be located; thanks!

2E of the Settler is the best visible spot for the Challenger saved game (the Lake still provides Fresh Water access).

I definitely like going 1NW for the Contender saved game, giving extra Happiness and plenty of GH squares. It'll set games off to a solid start and honestly, people are probably going to want to settle a second City before spamming War Chariots (this claim might not be true if the AIs started with only 1 City themselves), and I think that a 2nd City by the Horse Resources makes more sense than a second City by the GH squares and Gold without any promise of Food for them.

Well it will be fun to see if I can win this even on the Challenger save. Don't hold your breath!

You may want to change it to "GOTM" in the header

DynamicSpirit said:

And apologies for the late start by the way. We had some staff availability issues (inevitable from time to time when these games rely on volunteer staff who have outside lives too )

Click to expand...

Cactus Pete said:

Pleased to see another GOTM. Was thinking maybe the string had finally run out.

Understand staffing issues. Is that also why results for #100 have not been put up?

Click to expand...

My apologies, thanks to DS for organising the game.

lymond said:

You may want to change it to "GOTM" in the header

Click to expand...

Good catch, thanks lymond, I've fixed it.

Note that after some additional testing, I've improved the adventurer bonus:

Besides the previously announced additional techs (hunting and animal husbandry), adventurer players will start with a worker, starting on the same tile on the settler.

DynamicSpirit said:

Note that after some additional testing, I've improved the adventurer bonus:

Besides the previously announced additional techs (hunting and animal husbandry), adventurer players will start with a worker, starting on the same tile on the settler.

Click to expand...

Good choice. Otherwise, the Adventurer Class players only had two options:
- Settle on a P Riv Horse for instant access, build War Chariots, and steal Workers (which a player who picks Adventurer may not be comfortable doing and may be ill-advised to start doing in a Deity game)
- Build a Worker like nearly everyone else, but by the time that the Worker has been completed, everyone will have Animal Husbandry anyway


With the Worker, an Adventurer Class player can start off by building a Warrior and Farming the Wheat. Once the City has grown a bit, one could build a Settler. The original Warrior can scout for a good settling location near the Gold and the two Warriors can be used to spawn-bust a path to that settling location. After the Settler, the P Riv Horse should already be connected and the capital can start building some War Chariots to deal with Barbs. Meanwhile, the Warriors can act as Military Police units for the two Cities while the Chariots make the surrounding areas safe for additional Workers and Settlers.

Mmm might have been more of a help in moving huts from the AI and giving them to us than the other way round!! Deity is enough of a struggle as it is..

So, flood plain on an icy hill. DS has the fantasy realm spirit.

I am not sure what you mean... This is a fantasy realm map, so I guess it should have that spitit...

Here is a test game for anyone who want to test out different start locations.

All nearby GH are removed but it seem the map is not flat.

As I said, it is for testing the starting points.

Good luck.

I guess I'll have to take Adventurer, given that I struggle on Monarch. Or I could take Contender (hey, there are horses and I'm playing as Egypt!) and try to avoid getting the fastest-loss award. If all the AIs were Maya Greece or Mali, it would be impossible. So I guess that they're not.