BOTM 04 Pregame Discussion

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 04: English

Since I'm from England, it's about time I did this...

Game Details:

Game settings:
Civilization: English (Leader: Churchill; Traits: Charismatic, Protective)
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Prince
Map: Fractal
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Tropical
Water level: Medium
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Epic
Options: None
Victory Conditions: all enabled

Churchill:
Churchill is Charismatic and Protective; starting with fishing and mining. Charismatic gives +1 happiness per city as well as an additional +1 happiness with monuments and again with broadcast towers. In addition, units need 25% less experience to get promotions. Protective gives free City Garrison 1 and Drill 1 promotions to all archery and gunpowder units, and double production speed for walls and castles.

Unique unit: Redcoat (replaces rifleman)
The redcoat has the same strength (14) as riflemen, but has an extra +25% strength against gunpowder units. Both redcoats and riflemen have +25% strength against mounted units.

Unique building: Stock Exchange (replaces bank
The stock exchange gives 65% extra gold in a city, as opposed to 50% for a bank.

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



Adventurer Class bonuses:

1. Scout You have a scout (sharing a tile with the warrior)
2. You're clever! You know the secret of hunting
   

Challenger Class Equalisers:

1. You still haven't learned anything since the last time you played challenger, have you? You don't know any techs
2. Barb uprising. Reports have been heard that three barbarian warriors are on the prowl, somewhere between 8 and 13 tiles away from your settler start position.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open on 15 March 2008. From that date, you'll be able to get the starting saves at here. Use the same URL to submit your completed entry, which you must do by 15 April 2008.

Civ version

This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Warlords or vanilla Civ), patched to version 3.13, for Mac or Windows, and with the HOF mod version 3.13.001 installed.

You can download the 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. Please use this Saves Available thread for any technical queries, eg. if you have trouble opening the game, NOT for discussions about what happens in your game.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Just a quick reminder - there is a reported bug in this version of BtS, which means that on occasions, not all the UN or apostolic palace voting options that should be offered actually are offered. If you are going for a religious or diplomatic victory, please be aware that you may have to wait longer than you expect to be offered the correct vote.

 

[Gnejs]

Barb uprising. Reports have been heard that three barbarian warriors are on the prowl, somewhere between 8 and 13 tiles away from your settler start position.

Sounds fun! Is there anything we should know about the barb warriors? Like what script they have been assigned, if this is applicable to barb warriors...

 

[chunkymonkey]

hmm, Prince... two gold mines... what's the catch DS?

 

[ChrisFromLux]

Settings sound a bit like SGOTM06, no?

And 2 Gold-resources in the starting area? What did you give to the AI? Or do you want to make up for that evil start on BOTM03?


At least, for me, it's clear to settle in place, this time ...

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Sounds fun! Is there anything we should know about the barb warriors? Like what script they have been assigned, if this is applicable to barb warriors...

Yeah, like I'm gonna tell you that!

hmm, Prince... two gold mines... what's the catch DS?

God, I could start to think you guys don't trust me...

 

[whb]

Those pigs look like they'll give us 4 food, only enough to work one of the golds. It'd then be 2 grassland farms per plains hill we want to mine. Tempting to move the warrior to the southern gold to see if there are any more food resources in the starting fat cross.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Riverside pig grassland hill give us 5f1h1c. Count me in for settling in place. I go for the builder VC's most of the time but given Churchill's traits it seems like a waste.

Tropical climate and yet we have tundra N of corn. Hmmm. My warrior will definitely scout S. I'll start with a worker, Agri, AH, Wheel.

 

[Ribannah]

Many options to move the settler.

1 west (might catch an additional resource)
1 southwest, south or southeast (keep one gold, leave the other to second city)
2 northwest (hoping for a sea resource)
2 northeast (more natural food, won't need animal husbandry right away, possible sea resource)
2 southwest , or one south + one southeast (faster production; leave gold to second city)

However, it looks like tundra north of the corn, so moving north would decentralize the capital.

 

[JungleIII]

Deleted...

 

[JungleIII]

TEST GAME TO TRY...

Thanks DS - and it's early too! I also appreciate the skill level - making a good bookend to Ainwood's over challenging map on Immortal level with GOTM28, which will knock out 2/3 of the participants/submissions.

On DS's game, we are at the top of the map (note Tundra), and Fractal means we may have to travel across ocean to reach some of our opponents (3 out of 4 test maps - this is the case). I like the resources and extra river tiles for extra economic advantage and will probably settle in place.

REVISED TEST GAME - CLICK ON FOLLOWING LINK:

 

[blastoidstalker]

moving SW SW puts the settler on a plains hill and could reveal a big new piece of the map then you could settle on the plains hill or in a particular direction on turn 2.

 

[Niklas]

No blue rings??

 

[ArcadicGamer]

I like the look of 1W, and using a 2nd city next to the corn for one gold, and the capitol for the other. Seems like a good production city could be had SE also. Fractal means ships are wanted early for exploration, so me 2nd city seems like a good place for ships....

 

[jesusin]

...
2 northeast (more natural food, won't need animal husbandry right away, possible sea resource)
...

Don't you like ham?

The first thing I though when I saw the screenshot was bacon!

The second thing I thought was "I hope DS doesn't take the pigs away for challengers".




Could this thread be stikied, please?

 

[kcd_swede]

I like the look of 1W, and using a 2nd city next to the corn for one gold, and the capitol for the other. Seems like a good production city could be had SE also. Fractal means ships are wanted early for exploration, so me 2nd city seems like a good place for ships....

I'm considering the Challenger save this time, so the unimproved production in the starting position looks superior to 1w. If I wimp out and take Contender save, I may go 1w as you suggest (trade a hill and forest for 3 river tiles). I don't like moving more than 1 unless I can see a clear advantage. I see no clear advantage yet, and doubt moving the warrior would change the picture. 3 barbs shouldn't be a prob unless they come stacked (which is not normal behavior for barbs), but should just be good chance for some easy promo's.

I notice 4 tundra tiles in NE corner. That corn might come at a high cost.

As for fractal with medium sea, I wouldn't worry about ships early. Expect lots of choke points, land-locked seas, and resources in clusters. To get variety of resources will require lots of land and/or good trade relations. Don't be shocked if there is no iron or bronze closer than 30 spaces. Expect it. Defense is easier than offense in fractal maps, and with Protective trait it becomes even easier. This BOTM looks to favor builders, but such a juicy start should enable any kind of victory.

Tentative plan(Challenger): settle in place, work the 2f1h tiles, build War/War/Work, tech Mine/Agri/Hunt/Arch/Myst/BW or something like that. Any comments on my proposed tech order are welcome... I'm a bit unsure. I want to get gold and some support farm(s) going asap, pigs can wait (or is that stupid?). Rapid expansion to 4-5 cities is my early aim.

 

[Rajaat]

The starting place looks very good. Too good actually. I wouldn't be surprised if we are alone or have an aggressive neighbour.

Having completely messed up my BOTM3 game. I look forward to a game where at least one city will be high production/commerce.

Can't wait

 

[kcd_swede]

Tempting to move the warrior to the southern gold to see if there are any more food resources in the starting fat cross.

How many tiles would moving the warrior 1S reveal? 3? If so, its definitely the best 1st move for me. Hard to imagine any better settle position showing up, but you never know.

 

[azzaman333]

I'm liking the idea of 2SW, onto the plains hill then getting a settler out fairly quick to go north to the corn/gold. I also think we could be isolated on a rather large landmass, free of metal/horses, due to the whole Protective/Charismatic thing, and our start is too good.

 

[kcd_swede]

The Redcoats are coming! the Redcoats are coming!

I hate this UU (when I have to face it in battle). I love having it, though.