[BTS] News: BOTM 208 - Dutch, starts Feb 26 2021

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 208: Willem Van Orange of Netherlands.

You will play on Monarch difficulty level as Willem van Orange of the Netherlands on a unique map I'm calling Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons). Around here, it is a term
commonly used for a pizza with different toppings in four quarter sections. Inspiration comes in many forms!

This map is comprised of 4 quarters, each random generated maps using four different mapscripts (Rainforest, Lakes,Fantasy, and Inland Sea)
which comprise this 52x32 tile map. You start in the middle at the four corners, on a galley to make any section you choose to settle in viable.
There are no AI nor Tribal Villages within 10 tiles of this location, so you may want to explore a little before deciding. Resources and terrain is virtually
unaltered from the original corresponding locations from the original mapscript (for example, the North West is from the Northwest quadrant of a Rainforest map,
and the South East is from the Southeast quadrant of a Fantasy map).
I hope everyone can learn about the various map scripts and choose a direction best suited to your aims. This link might help:

https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/map-scripts-guide

Good luck, and have fun!

Game settings:
Playing as: Willem of Netherlands (in-game your nickname may be "mapmaker")
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Monarch
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No tech brokering, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled
Map settings:
Map: Quattro Stagioni (Rainforest, Lakes, Fantasy, Inland Sea)
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Standard (52x32)
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium
Willem is Creative and Financial, and you start with Fishing and Agriculture.
The Creative trait gives +2 culture/city each turn and double production speed of Colosseum, Library and Theatre
The Financial trait gives +1 commerce on any plot that already has at least 2 commerce
Unique unit: East Indiaman (replaces Galleon)
The East Indiaman benefits from: base strength = 6, can explore rival territory, and can carry 4 units. This compares with the Galleon which has: base strength = 4, cannot explore rival territory without open borders, and can carry 3 units.
Unique Building: Dike (replaces Levee)
Dike (cost 180 ) Steam Power Unique building for the Dutch; Replaces Levee
+1 on the city’s river and water tiles
Can only be built in a coastal or riverside city
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.
Challenger Class Equalizers:
If you like a bigger challenge, you may play this at Deity difficulty level. AI will have Monarch level starting units
and Barbarians do not start with any technologies (i.e. no archery).
To Enter the Competition:
This competition will open at 00:01 am on 26 feb 2021, 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 1 apr 2021.
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 3.19.005 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.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Great scenario! Must have taken some time to put together. You might be driving those who like to compare games crazy though. This will be very interesting. By the way another possible name for the map type would be: Dry Rice.

 

[Pangaea]

Technically three concurrent GOTMs. You may have to rebrand to Game of the Week

Very unusual scenario again. I like it. From what I recall, Fantasy is kinda bonkers, with ice next to grassland and the like, with no sense nor rhyme to resource distribution. Rainforest is jungle. I like the prospect of Lakes or Inland sea better. I really quite like the Lakes script, so maybe I'll go that way. Hopefully at least those two options will give us good capitals, so we don't get off on the wrong foot.

No tech brokering will be unusual and possibly a challenge. Though I suppose it may actually hurt the AIs more than the human. We can then trade away monopoly techs without risking it going around like wildfire (tho they do get a slight research boost on it).

 

[nocho]

Very creative setup, looking forward to it! As the Dutch have sort of an inland sea converted into a lake, will probably opt for either of those.

 

[Powerfaker]

Ha, I see moving is a must. That's a very interesting start. Sure like this kind of variety.

First thoughts =>
I wonder what would make rainforest attractive to settle. At least Fin could help getting IronW faster.
Fantasia seems good because is close by. Can choose to move inland.
Lakes sounds good in combination with Fin trait
Inland sea? So it has a sea in the corner of the map? How does this type compare to Lakes on other stuff?

Wondering if good locations are ± equally far away in each direction.
I'm assuming Fantasia sub setting is ''logical'' resources? Maybe that's something we should know (fe ''irrational'' would mean foodresis on food-poor tiles like hills/tundra.ice if I read the description in the link correct, not desirable).
Apart from the main feature I know very little about slight differences in resources or terrain between map types. What else is there to take into account? At this point 3 directions seem ± equally attractive, ruling out Rainforest.

Just thinking out loud here, not fishing for details.........

 

[Pangaea]

Just thinking out loud here, not fishing for details.........

We do start with Fishing in fairness

 

[LowtherCastle]

Key question to me is did the map maker create reasonably comparable starting positions in all four directions? (Virtually unaltered...)

Or is the plan to pick your map type and then go on a walkabout to find a nice settling position?

These types of settling decisions I’m liable to overthink and end up settling in just the wrong position, like on the copper tile…

Another problem with studying the map types in advance is that the particular quadrants you get might be different than you were hoping within the parameters of the map type.

What I observed, which I have little confidence in asserting, is that rainforest has lots of jungle pigs potentially, inland sea seems to consistently have lots of river tiles, lakes seems likely to have copper and/or horse nearby, and fantasy seems unlikely to have two-food cities.

 

[krikav]

Fun and creative!

I have a distaste for the fantasy mapscript. Really dislike all that nonsense.
So I'll be running into the jungle (rainforest) to get as far away as I can.

 

[krikav]

Fantasy:
You can really hit the jackpot, getting floodplains-riverside-grassland-pigs, or something other ridiculus. If you want to gamble on getting a really strong start, thats likely the way to go.

Inland sea has alot of rivers, yepp!

Lakes have alot of chokepoints, might be easier to handle AIs/Barbs there.

Rainforest... It's good in the endgame, once the AIs have cleared all the jungle.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Another line of thinking is the six rivals. Where will they be? Will it be two quadrants with a single rival and two quadrants with a pair? Or the six rivals spread out evenly around the map? One thing relatively for sure is that inland map has less land than the other three.

 

[Pangaea]

The Rainforest can also have cities stocked to the rafters with food. Like 5 food in a city. Not great diversity, tho, and ofc there is all that jungle to cut down - hardly ideal in the early game (tho there may be a region without jungle, like normal starting areas on the mapscript). Lakes or Inland sea are the two fairly safe bets, I think.

Barbs are on, right? So there is an outside chance of getting your settler eaten by a panther or wolf if you land T4, and some buggers jumps out in T5.

What to do with the warrior? Keep him where he is to scout and find neighbours, or jump in the boat to do the same wherever we settle?

 

[Pangaea]

Also gotta say that I quite like the Dutch UB. It's like having a free Moai in every coastal city. Nice in the right map, altho ofc we don't get access to it until the late game. Probably only relevant in space games. Still.. it's quite nice

 

[Powerfaker]

What to do with the warrior? Keep him where he is to scout and find neighbours, or jump in the boat to do the same wherever we settle?

Better not join the warrior with the settler. The panther might kill the warrior too.

Well. good point. I think the warrior has to scout the land around your capital anyhow, so I'll take him where the settler goes. The galley can scout further away more easily with its 2-move.

Would also be nice to find a spot where you put your 2nd/3rd city across the water in a different quadrant for better traderoutes.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Would also be nice to find a spot where you put your 2nd/3rd city across the water in a different quadrant for better traderoutes.

I know your (land) cities are connected by routes even before Sailing if they have connected cultural boundaries, but does anyone know if that holds across water? I'd assume so, but it could be a nasty surprise if not.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I know your (land) cities are connected by routes even before Sailing if they have connected cultural boundaries, but does anyone know if that holds across water? I'd assume so, but it could be a nasty surprise if not.

Only if the culture on the water touches unless there are weird exceptions.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Technically three concurrent GOTMs. You may have to rebrand to Game of the Week .

Since I finished the the other two over a week ago, I'm very happy with this early start!

The settling choice is a big question though. I don't think I really want to spend a lot of turns roaming around for a perfect spot, instead of settling earlier on a less ideal location.

 

[kcd_swede]

Since I finished the the other two over a week ago, I'm very happy with this early start!

It's a sort of slide into getting back to two games per month starting 1st and 15th. So you get an extra weekend!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Wow, what a setup! Big kudos to @kcd_swede for a map that's interesting and must've been a huge effort to create! (I know because I'm a mapmaker... I've thought several times that it'd be nice to mix different map scripts but have never done it because, in the absence of a tool to let you copy and paste sections of maps, I figured it would have been so much work)!

I think the key here is going to be to try to grow your empire so as to take advantage of the different regions. Where to move first...

Rainforest... I agree with @Pangaea that rainforest can give you super-powerful cities. But that only really helps you once you have iron working and enough spare workers to do jungle clearing, so I wouldn't want to go to there first. I'd aim to spread into rainforest later in the game, maybe by around 0AD.

Fantasy realm can be really useful for giving you lots of different/unusual resources within a small geographical area, but will be hard to get a decent capital. Also - because I usually go for space race - I want early cities that can eventually grow to size 20+. That's pretty tough on fantasy realm because wherever you settle you're likely to pick up a fair bit of ice/desert/tundra. A further minor disadvantage of fantasy realm on this map is it's furthest from the rainforest, where I'll be wanting to spread to later. I think I'd avoid it at the start but keep an eye on it for a couple of cities to provide any resources I'm missing later in the game.

Inland Sea. Of all the scripts, I think this one holds the best prospect of powerful/high commerce early capital and 2nd/3rd cities. It's usually lush with lots of grassland-rivers. My only doubt is, if I've understood @kcd_swede's description correctly, we start in the middle of the map, which means, in the middle of the inland sea - so could be a few turns of sailing before we reach any inland-sea land. Especially if we had West rather than South.

Lakes. Not as lush as inland sea. But can usually furnish a good capital, and with the benefit of there actually being land in the middle of the map where we start.

Another complicating factor is not knowing whether swede has made any modifications to make sure there is a decent start nearby whichever direction we head in. That adds some risk.

For me it's between inland sea and lakes. As for where to take the settler, I don't yet know. Every direction has advantages and disadvantages. But I'm thinking South-SouthWest might be the best compromise in order to quickly reach lush inland-sea land, while having the fantasy realm nearby in case I'm short of early happy/strategic resources.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

B
Would also be nice to find a spot where you put your 2nd/3rd city across the water in a different quadrant for better traderoutes.

Do we know whether the quadrants are actually separated by water? Or would you for example be able to walk from lakes to its neighbours?

 

[LowtherCastle]

Do we know whether the quadrants are actually separated by water? Or would you for example be able to walk from lakes to its neighbours?

Wondering the same. My first thought was all separated by water but then re-reading the introduction that doesn’t necessarily seem likely. In fact it seems unlikely. He took the four quadrants and pasted them together. Then either added a little bit of water or not so that we could start in the middle with the Galley and see what’s going on.