[BTS] News: BOTM 256; Maya, Prince - Starts 15 Aug 2023

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 256: Pacal II of Maya.

You will play on a heavily modified Boreal map as Pacal of the Maya, at Prince Difficulty.

Game settings:
Playing as: Pacal II of Maya
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Prince
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map:Boreal-heavily modified
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: 70°N to 90°N


Pacal II is Financial and Expansive, and you start with Mysticism and Mining.

The Financial trait gives +1 commerce on any plot that already has at least 2 commerce

The Expansive trait gives +2 health/city and +25% hammers for worker production and double production speed of Granary and Harbor

Unique unit: Holkan (replaces Spearman)
Unlike the spearman, the holkan is immune to first strikes. But its real benefit is that it requires no resources to build (although you do need to know both bronze working and hunting).

Unique Building: Ball Court (replaces Colosseum)
The ball court gives an amazing +3 happiness in its city, against the +1 that a normal colosseum would give. And just like the colosseum, you get a further +1 happiness for each 20% culture rate.

Starting screenshot

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



Adventurer Class bonuses:
No adventurer save

Challenger Class Equalizers:
You will play the game at Emperor difficulty level, but starting units are as for Prince level.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 Aug 2023, 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 Sep 2023.

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.

 

[Frederiksberg]

@kcd_swede and @DynamicSpirit setting new standards for being on time with the BOTM

Im thinking warrior SE to see what's to the south. The two obvious spots for settling are 1SW and 1S to get fresh water and the wet wheat tile in the BFC.

 

[LowtherCastle]

This is a toughie. We seem to be pretty far south, so settling to the north into the woods might be a bit more centralized, leaving a coastal city for the wheat and all those nice 3f3c lakes. It appears we can’t have the deer and the wheat as a coastal city. Then again, two deer tiles is not a lot of food for the capital so moving north is a bit risky.

 

[High King J.J.]

What do you mean 3 lakes? Only if you had a lighthouse and that isn't available for lake cities. Even Esgaroth had no lighthouse, until Smaug lit up a lot of houses

 

[Conquistador 63]

Nice, we get to play another seldom used mapscript!

We seem to be pretty far south, so settling to the north into the woods might be a bit more centralized

I wouldn't be so sure, looks like this mapscript can have ice/snow tiles everywhere.
In the sample below, we have world wrap: 1.flat, 2.cylindrical, 3.toroidal.

https://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg70/Mortac/boreal1.gif

 

[Powerfaker]

Agree with @LowtherCastle
Hopefully settling north gets us a much better bureau cap too.
By the way 1S is for sure not coastal? Was thinking we don't know, something for the warrior to find out.

Edit: Ah yes Boreal, I always confuse it with Arboria. So we're not necessarily in the south, there's tundra everywhere

 

[DynamicSpirit]

@kcd_swede and @DynamicSpirit setting new standards for being on time with the BOTM

Im thinking warrior SE to see what's to the south. The two obvious spots for settling are 1SW and 1S to get fresh water and the wet wheat tile in the BFC.

Trying to do some fog-gazing, it looks to me like setting 1SW gives one extra forest to chop in the BFC, however 1S offers the possibility that it might be coastal, and therefore allow building a lighthouse. I'd be inclined to move the warrior 1SW onto the ice, so that we can see whether the water tiles to the SE are just lakes or are actually sea, and then make the decision about 1SW or 1S based on what the warrior finds.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Trying to do some fog-gazing, it looks to me like setting 1SW gives one extra forest to chop in the BFC, however 1S offers the possibility that it might be coastal, and therefore allow building a lighthouse. I'd be inclined to move the warrior 1SW onto the ice, so that we can see whether the water tiles to the SE are just lakes or are actually sea, and then make the decision about 1SW or 1S based on what the warrior finds.

How can it be coastal? chained 1tile lakes count?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

How can it be coastal? chained 1tile lakes count?

I'd turn the question around and say, what makes you think it can't be coastal? All we can see from the starting screenshot is that the tile 1E of the ice appears to be water, as well as the tiles E and NE of that tile. I don't see anything in the screenshot that could tell us whether it's an inland lake or a sea.

But to answer your 2nd question, yes, if you put enough lakes side by side, the game will automatically treat them as a sea. If you're editing the map in Worldbuilder, and you keep adding lakes together, you can actually see the point where you add one more lake tile and the water body automatically becomes an ocean. Then remove a lake tile so you drop back below the critical number and the ocean reverts back to being an inland lake.

 

[High King J.J.]

Maybe Fine_Distinction meant chained 1-tile lakes on the map. I'd say diagonally adjacent water never add up to a sea. If you can't sail anything from a 'coast' tile to another then they aren't part of the same body of water. Game treats diagonal lake/land connections always as land connections so a land unit can cross for example between initial map's ice and wheat tiles but a water unit can't cross from north of wheat to south of ice, unless going via a fort or a city tile.

It seems the unseen coast tiles can be a sea, we'll know once we see if the tile 1SE of settler is wet or dry. 1S is of course wet due to the lake between warrior and wheat. So 1S might offer fresh water and coastal, giving us 3 3 lakes. So maybe we get to build a .
Maybe I'm just stating the obvious. I mean no disrespect.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

@DynamicSpirit as @High King J.J. explained, I though people considered that these diagonal single-tile lakes will make the capital coastal. was reading it on a phone, did not notice water to the east, back to vacationing

 

[kcd_swede]

Did anyone notice the text "heavily modified"? Just wondering. And never trust a mapmaker, that's always good advice.

 

[High King J.J.]

Did anyone notice the text "heavily modified"? Just wondering. And never trust a mapmaker, that's always good advice.

Noticed. And I trust the mapmaker less than an Aztec with nukes. Goes without saying.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Did anyone notice the text "heavily modified"? Just wondering. And never trust a mapmaker, that's always good advice.

Yes, I saw it. I expect that the map will be more surreal than boreal

Knowing your tendencies, I expect more water tiles than normal and maybe Humbaba roaming a treasure island in the middle of a sea.

 

[LowtherCastle]

What do you mean 3 lakes? Only if you had a lighthouse and that isn't available for lake cities. Even Esgaroth had no lighthouse, until Smaug lit up a lot of houses

Right. Brainfart. Who knows where or if ocean tiles will be available.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Did anyone notice the text "heavily modified"? Just wondering. And never trust a mapmaker, that's always good advice.

Yes. I’m assuming the worst. We are landlocked and can only access the great beyond with paratroopers. No ocean tiles, no galleys, nothing.

I feel so isolated that I doubt anybody’s even reading this. You have all already downloaded the game and cannot respond.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Nah I am traveling did not even realize game is up due to time zones

 

[LowtherCastle]

Nah I am traveling did not even realize game is up due to time zones

In that case, you get to hear my new theory: the map maker, chopped down all the trees in the boreal map! Outside of what we see, of course…

 

[Fine_Distinction]

In that case, you get to hear my new theory: the map maker, chopped down all the trees in the boreal map! Outside of what we see, of course…

My internet is bad so i even don’t know what normal boreal is. But I am glad no huts, I never find them anyway

 

[kcd_swede]

Dang... let me set up some spoiler threads so you can say what you really think.