[BTS] News: BOTM 155 starts June 8

[Deckhand]

BOTM 155: Teh Gauls of France.

Teh Gauls (DeGaulle) has led his people north following an ecological desertification disaster in their homeland. Will they find peace and plenty in the fertile grasslands of Teh Centre? Or will they be forced to fight for their little bit of clay?
You face three teams of leaders that like to build units.
DeGaulle has good traits but had starred the least of any leader with only two previous appearances.

Game settings:
Playing as: Teh Gauls of France
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Warlord
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No barbarians, unrestricted leaders, no vassal states, no goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Edited Hub
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Worldsize_small
Climate: Climate_temperate
Sea level: Sealevel_medium


Teh Gauls is Industrious and Charismatic, and you start with The Wheel and Agriculture.
The Industrious trait gives +50% wonder production and double production speed of Forge

The Charismatic trait gives +1 happiness/city, and -25% experience required for unit promotions

Unique unit: Musketeer (replaces Musketman)
The Musketeer benefits from: 2 movement points. This compares with the Musketman which has: 1 movement point.

Unique Building: Salon (replaces Observatory)
A free artist in addition to Observatory's +25%

Starting screenshot

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




Note that in this game, any espionage-culture victories will be counted as cultural victories.

Adventurer Class bonuses:
Teams sounds scary. Chieftain level will be a lot easier.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Teams? Bring it on! Emperor level might be a challenge.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 8 Jun 2018, 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 15 Jul 2018.

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

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the BUFFY mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.


Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the Mac BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the Mac BUFFY 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.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Everyone just getting started without discussion, eh?

I guess I'll settle in place, although it's a bit short of hammers.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm thinking 1W might be better to address the hammers issue?

 

[nocho]

1W seems to kill the fish. I'm thinking of trying my luck by moving north, maybe between sheep and silver.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

On phone so missed Fish at first, good point!

 

[neilmeister]

Looking at that, I think SIP. The fish can be used late and the deers shared. I am not a big fan of wandering when we dont have a scout

 

[Unmnemonic]

My first GOTM! Looking forward to it. I opted for Challenger.

SIP for my opening, and Hunting to use the deer and to quickly scout this desertification disaster... though i'm no fan of Hunting and scouts, esp. with no huts. With Chuck as leader I'm not going to compete for early religions. Might be a mistake to pass on the Oracle rush with marble available.

 

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 155: Teh Gauls of France.

.

Finally a game I might could finish in one session. More than that I am cursed with "distractions".

 

[Fine_Distinction]

I never played with AI teams - how does it work? I understand the "perceived difficulty" will be much higher, they will be pooling their research, army, sharing wonder effects, what else? How strategy should be different for those games?

 

[Deckhand]

I never played with AI teams - how does it work? I understand the "perceived difficulty" will be much higher, they will be pooling their research, army, sharing wonder effects, what else? How strategy should be different for those games?

pooling their research - True [I do not know whether there is any scaling of tech cost]
army - separate armies; I assume they move and attack separately and AIs take their turns in order (not simultaneously as two human players would in multi player)
diplomacy is individual for most actions but war decs / peace affect both members
sharing wonder effects - True

victory conditions - combined (3 legendary cities total for culture victory; contribute parts to same common spaceship; combined pop/land for domination; etc)
what else/strategy? - perhaps someone that hasn't started the game could comment; or anyone could just post a link to an old thread

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Thank you, Deck . Indeed sounds scary, the only good thing at least their armies are individual and individual diplo. Sounds like their votes would be also added or they would always vote for one of them for AP and UN?

OK, so AI with 2 settlers, 4 traits, 2UUs and 2UBs to leverage, but fortunately without other deity bonuses. It will be interesting to see if their traits and civ will be synergistic. Could be deadly with human players, but hopefully AI will not take full advantage of the situation

 

[DynamicSpirit]

pooling their research - True [I do not know whether there is any scaling of tech cost]

I recall a couple of games with teams a long time ago. Those were vanilla/Warlords not BtS, but assuming nothing has changed in BtS: There was no tech cost scaling. I would therefore anticipate that AI tech rates will be insanely fast (perhaps slightly moderated by it being only Warlord difficulty).

army - separate armies; I assume they move and attack separately and AIs take their turns in order (not simultaneously as two human players would in multi player)
diplomacy is individual for most actions but war decs / peace affect both members
sharing wonder effects - True

Yep that's all what I remember. In any war, the armies won't cooperate, but you still have both armies to cooperate. The other thing is, if I recall correctly, it only takes one AI to decide to declare war for all team members to be committed to the war. That means a lot more warring.

victory conditions - combined (3 legendary cities total for culture victory; contribute parts to same common spaceship; combined pop/land for domination; etc)
what else/strategy? - perhaps someone that hasn't started the game could comment; or anyone could just post a link to an old thread

Warlord should make it easier. But I suspect that because of the AI tech rates, the advantage will go to the person who can attack and take out or severely weaken an AI very early in the game. Or who can successfully bribe AIs into declaring war on each other (any AI-on-AI wars should be BIG). Not sure what you'd be able to bribe them with though, given likely AI tech rates.

With these tech rates, I wonder if we'll see a space race in in 1200 AD or something