GOTM 33 has arrived

Since the forum was down I had a little extra time to play with GOTM 33.

I've played with the map a little bit, but that was it.

You start as Henry VIII of the English on a flat 65x45 size map (inbetween a small and medium size map, but 'flipped' so it's longer than it is taller) with 5 other Civs and restarts are on.

Game Stats:

Emperor Level
Terrain settings are Normal, Warm, and 4 billion.
Land size/type settings were random.
Barbarians are Raging



GOTM 33 Save

Games will be due November 8th

Be sure to send in the required saves {One from AD 1, AD 1000, and a save just before you would finish the game} to Duke of Marlbrough.

Three mountains, five hills, a desert and NO techs? Hmmmm. I wonder where the neighbors aren't.

OK, Lafayette, we are on, no? It takes me several weekends to finish, but I will start tonight.

Why all the Flat maps?

Something funny about black-clicking in this one, too: when I go off my "continent" I get a #2, rather than a #1...

Stop black clicking: you will never have that kind of surprise

Originally posted by grigor
OK, Lafayette, we are on, no?

Click to expand...

Yes we are

... but I guess you are going to win if you are a bit more lucky than I have been with the barbs
Raging hordes: this is really what I got; endless attacks between 2500BC and 1AD.
I an now on the warpath, but started very late (about 700AD).
Anyway, the map is fun: thank you DoM!

I was looking for a way to do an OCC...

Somehow I get the feeling that you ususally look to see if an OCC makes sense. In GOTM 32, I wandered for too long trying to see if there was anything more to work with that wonderful whale -- would an OCC have four specials? After too long of a search, I decided against it -- and the challenge of a slow start was on.

You really need 4 high-trade specials, but I've done several with 3. Ones like Coal or Iron dont help the research at all, while Fish or Buffalo help food or production but give you no more trade than a non-special tile.

The other thing you really want is ocean access for your single city, so you can ship caravans overseas, especially if there is no other civ on your continent/island. Otherwise you have to wait to bribe a passing ship, which usually takes a LONG time, if at all. Using HutFinder to generate the Resource Seed, then drawing the starting terrain in MapEditor tells me where the closest groups of specials are. I black-click the city site to see if it is land or water. Popping early huts often gives unsupported military units, too, which can help speed the search.

If you do have another civ on your continent, dont kill them off. Trade routes to an AI city on your own continent are even better than those overseas, once you get the right Road/Rail link. Butter them up and start planning a "critical-path" road to the city that has the best prospects for trade tiles. I favor ones on grass near Whales, if possible. I usually figure one trade arrow per AI citizen, once they (or I) have Roaded and Irrigated, but the Whales will bump that up by two. The AI seems to disregard trade arrow specials, looking first to food and then to production. Several times I have seen them turn Gems into Grass! If I have someone nearby I keep trying to get an alliance with them, and NEVER backstab them. I send my own settlers/engineers over to improve their city radius for more citizens, and I prioritize gifting all the pacifying and growing techs.

This ought to be interesting; I've been playing at Prince at the highest so far. I'm probably gonna regret it.

I still play at Prince a lot. The two major differences are greater pressure for early wonders and more targets to shoot at.

At Emperor level the AI gets a small advantage in research, city growth and production. The bigger issue for the human player is that the third citizen of every city is discontented, where at Prince level it is the fifth. Keeping your cities small at the beginning, or getting Ceremonial Burial and Mysticism early, or keeping garrison Warriors around, can change the strategy you usually play at Prince level. Try an ICS-type start and streamline your tech path to Monarchy and Trade. Trade is the greatest advantage you have over the AI.

Originally posted by ElephantU
At Emperor level the AI gets a small advantage in research, city growth and production. The bigger issue for the human player is that the third citizen of every city is discontented, where at Prince level it is the fifth. Keeping your cities small at the beginning, or getting Ceremonial Burial and Mysticism early, or keeping garrison Warriors around, can change the strategy you usually play at Prince level. Try an ICS-type start and streamline your tech path to Monarchy and Trade. Trade is the greatest advantage you have over the AI.

Click to expand...

My usual strategy is to go for the Great Library, to keep my tech balanced until my beaker level builds up. From what everybody says here (including you), the best thing is to skip that, and snap it up later if I get a chance.

I have been playing Civ II for a long time and just recently checked out this excellent resource of new ideas. I've been playing some of the recent GOM and find the idea of competition great and the different maps.
I need help in understanding some of the abreviations and shoptalk: OCC, "black click", ICS-type start, no techs(?).
Is there a dictionary for these?
Thanks

OCC = One City Challenge = Try to win the game without ever having more than ONE city (first winner: Ming).
'black-click' = if you right-click in the unexplored (black) areas of the map, you can get information about continents and oceans (I never do it, since for me unexplored should be unexplored).
ICS = Infinite City Sleaze = a technique developped by my friend daveV = build many very small cities, very close to one another.
no techs = I dunno

starlifter has written a much more complete 'dictionary'.
Sure someone will tell you where you can find it (because I don't remember just now).

la fayette: I think you were referring to this one:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=324457

And I think "no techs" just refers to a game that starts with no "freebie" starting techs (beyond Irrigation, Mining and Roads).
When you get additional techs at the start (except for those added after the start was generated, like Navigation in GOTM31), they do not count against your tech count to increase the number of beakers for the next tech. This can skew the KeyCiv tech difference, depending on whether you or your KeyCiv have more freebies.

BTW, welcome to CFC, Tanstaafl! The Civ2 Game Of The Month is a lot of fun: we have players of every experience level, and the discussion/spoiler thread (you should have played up to 1AD before you drop in there) is a great way to learn from others.

Thanks, ElephantU, for the info. I will remember about the spoiler restriction. I am up to A1570 in this game and will see how I compare. Right now I'm also playing a game as an OCC using PaulVDB's strategy reference guide. It helps a lot but I'm still looking for meanings for abreviations, i.e. "WLTCD" =?

That one is on Starlifters list, too, under WLTC: We Love the <Consul/President> Day. It is when your city(ies) is celebrating in a Rep or Dem government, you can add 1 citizen per turn as long as you have at least 1 surplus food.

In addition to PaulV's Fortnightly OCC starts, there is a pair of OCC Comparison Games over on the Apolyton.Net/Civ2 General Forums. We are running about one game per month; #2 is roughly due the end of October, so it might be short-notice for you.

My OCC game got me killed off in the late 1880's when one of the last three civ's killed me off despite all attempts at peace and alliance. I will try the Apolyton games and see what happens.
Thanks.