SSG1, Arabian Nights - Monarch PTW 1.14

Welcome to Straightforward Succession Game 1, a succession game without variant rules. For most this seems boring, but for some, I hope, this will appeal. I welcome in particular anyone embarking on their first succession game.

I am hoping for 4-5 players who are of Monarch standard (slightly below or above is fine, but this game will be too easy for diety vets). I am perfectly fine with players used to playing on levels lower than Monarch, as I myself have only acheived one solo Monarch win. If you wish to join just say so in a post below. The 24 hour 'got it' and 48 hour playing rules apply, although they will not be enforced 100%. I plan to start with one player playing twenty turns, the next fifteen and then ten each for the rest of the game. If it gets too slow this can be shortened to five. Hopefully we can drum up enough interest to get this game going in the next couple of days. I will generate a start and a save once we have a full roster.

In this game we will play as Caliph Abu Bakr of the Arabs. There is no target victory condition, although I would like to try and use the Ansars in a medieval war, to see how they hold up. As is shown by our religious trait, we are fans of culture and the arts. Our expansionism enables us to engage in conversation with any local tribesmen we may meet without fear. The map settings are as follows:

Size: Standard
Barbarians: Roaming
Land Type: Continents
Land Mass: 60% Ocean
Climate: Arid
Age: 4 Billion
Temperature: Warm

I appreciate these settings could lead to quite a harsh starting location, but I attempted to simulate the actual conditions of the Arabian homelands.

EDIT: Seems there will be enough interest for this so I rolled out a start for us. It looks OK, feel free to post comments. No save as I intend to play the first turns if this is ok with all concerned.

Sign me up, I got the Monarch experience (but not much else, as my CTR1 indicates ) and I'm looking for more PTW experience

Great to have you on board ChrTh

I would like to join this SG. I gather we are going to be the Arabs by the title. Should be interesting.

OK, welcome aboard infoman. This is looking like being a very similar line-up to CTR1 I'll get a start up within the next hour or so now I know we have at least 3 players signed up.

You may not "trust" me (by my low post number), but I've been lurking here for the last couple of months. When Civ III first came out last year I played 2 Succession Games to completion on another (now defunct) site.

I'm comfortable with Monarch level. I lose about 50% of the time on Emporer, and I've lost a few Diety level games. Not exactly sterling qualifications there... ...compared to some of the Diety level zealots hereabouts, but kind of the level you are looking for, right?

Well, anyway. I would like to play, if you'll have me!

Thanks,

I assume it is PTW on the latest version?*

*Ooops! Bad me... Just re-read the version Info on the subject line. Ignore the buffoon in this corner please. I don't really feel like going back versions. Have a great game!

RJ

Thanks for the support Rubberjello. I would love it if you could join. Unfortunately it is a matter of neccesity I play on 1.14 as there is not actually a working version of 1.21 that we Europeans can obtain :-/.

Changing patchs is apparently quite easy, but I've never tried it myself. No worries if you don't want to do this though, I quite understand. Hopefully if I start another one in the future you will play.

{lurker sharing info}

col told me this
This is a workaround for those of us in Europe who need to run both - look here. There ISNT an offical Europe 1.21 patch yet.

http://danwilliamson.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=102

Click to expand...

I'm in America but followed this procedure to get up to 1.21 without having to use my CD (player is so loud it wakes the wife up)

Also:
FAQ about switching versions

hey, i will join if you still have a open slot. I have PTW latest patch, but I will install another copy with the 1.14 patch. I am pretty decent at beating EMperor and almost always beat Monarch. But I have never played Arabs. So this seems like fun.

Yep, welcome aboard betazed. Thanks for the info ControlFreak, I would get that, but I have already started this game in 1.14, and have many other games in 1.14 on the go. If I need to go to 1.21 I'll use that. Also, thanks for the FAQ link

We still have one more open slot, but I would like to open discussions on our start. It is my view that we should move the scout down onto the flood plain and then up onto the hill in the east, on the other side of the river. If there looks to be, say, wheat downstream, we can move our settler down there and get a much better capital. I won't do this yet, let other people have their say.

Since your worker will be irrigating the flood plain first, why not move him first and then decide if you still want the scout to move there or to the west. It looks like there is water in the north and moving the scout west and then on the hill after the worker goes southeast might give you more information.

EDIT: I'm thinking with the arid start, moving the settler E onto the hill by the river will end up being best. You will get a two food hill that way.

I would not move the worker first. We do not know yet if we are going to settle here. I would move the scout first, onto the hill and then the mountain to see the maximum area and then we will be in a better position to judge.

Moving the scout onto the hill will end his turn. You wont get to the mountain until the second turn. Even if the settler moves, he probably won't move very far. Keeping him on the river you can see, he will still be able to use the floodplain. This is the most powerful tile you can see, so why not have the worker go there first. The only way the settler wouldn't use this tile first is if you move him two spaces or away from the river. With this start, I can't see either of those happening.

Assuming both water in N and S are coast, moving the settler E will make room for cities 2 and 3 on the shore, while keeping the capital in the center of your empire.

Since we are religious and expansionist we already have pottery. So I think we should rush a granary first in the capital (after we have build the madatory warrior of course) and turn it to a settler factory. This is the usual procedure I follow. OF course I would like to hear how you do it too

Hmm. Moving the settler to the hill does sound logical. Let's go for it.

Yes, this is an excellent settler factory area. You have two flood plains for growth every 2 turns with a granary. Chopping the forest would speed the granary without losing the population point. (unless those trees are the jungle variety.) The new grassland underneath (hope it's Bonus Grass) would provide mining areas that won't slow growth like the hills will.

As for research I would go for Mysticism at full speed and then turn to forty turn reasearch of Polytheism. Myst is a second tier tech and has excellent trading value. This is monarch so we will be self researching later but not much in the ancient ages where we can broker and get all techs.

Good plan on the research. Being expansionist we will hopefully pop a lot of techs from huts. Blocking Mystism by researching it is probably a good plan. Another way to go would be to check the space race and figure out which civs are in the game. Then research at minimum the most prevalent tech to prevent popping it from a hut. Then if myst pops we use it for trade.

That brings up a good point, do you want another scout in the field before the granary? There should be at least three scouts tech farming and meeting neighbors, eventually.

I would not create another scout as of yet. For all we know we could be on a not so large island sharing it with a civ or two. If that is the case then another scout will be a waste. Had this been pangea then another scout would have made sense. If we come to know that we are on a large land mass then we can create another scout.

I concur with all the advice so far