News: TSG11 Announcement

leif erikson

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Civilization 5 – Game of the Month Training Series Game 11
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Welcome to the eleventh game in the GOTM V Training Series! There are plenty of new features in Civilization 5 to explore and the Training Series games will allow new and old GOTM fans to try out these new features in a friendly environment. You are all encouraged to post your questions, stories, advice, tricks and failures in the dedicated game threads described below. You can read more about the GOTM and Training Series concept in this thread. Before going into the details of this game, we would like to ask you to abide to our most sacred rule: don’t replay any turns. If you make a mistake, accept it and try to recover. It’s better to do the bad moves in the Training Series instead of in the actual GOTM competition, once it starts.

In this game, the designated VC is Cultural. You may win by any VC you wish, as all VC's are enabled, but the results will be posted with fastest finish by Cultural victory and then all other VC listed below by fastest time. Good Luck!

In this game you will play as Harun al-Rashid and lead the Arabian civilization to victory. It’s a standard sized fractal map played at Emperor difficulty and at standard pace. Cultural victory is the designated VC for this game, all victory conditions are enabled.

A note for Mac players. Your version of Civ5 is still not compatible with the Windows version, given the recent update. Results from the two version would not be comparable given the extensive game play changes. We hope your update come out soon. :please:

Please note that you are only allowed to build Oxford University one time. :nono:

Civ V - TSG11 game settings
Playable Civ: Harun al-Rashid - Arabia
Number of AI Opponents: 7
Number of City-States: 16
Map type: Fractal
Map Size: Standard
Difficulty Level: Emperor
Temperature: Temperate
Game pace: Standard
Game options: Quick Combat is disabled (You can enable it by following instructions in this link.) Promotion saving is enabled. Policy saving is disabled.

Playing as Harun al-Rashid, you possess Trade Caravans. You receive +1 Gold from each trade route and Oil resources provide double quantity. You can train Camel Archers, which replaces the Knight. The unit is a fast, powerful Medieval ranged attack unit, allowing it to do damage to enemies 2-hexes away. It can move after combat. The Camel Archer is less powerful than the Knight in melee combat and is vulnerable to Pikemen attack. You can also build Bazaar which replaces the Market. It provides 1 extra copy of each improved luxury resource near the city in which it is built, as well as a gold bonus to the city. It requires Currency to build.



Information about threads associated with TSG
TSG Announcement thread (this one). This thread is used to announce the game and clarify the settings and rules (don’t be afraid to ask questions). It’s also used to discuss the game before you start, and post problems with opening the save. Please don’t post any information from a game you have started. Instead use the next thread.

Game In Progress thread. This thread is used to discuss the game once it's on the way. There are no reading or posting restrictions as such (apart from normal decency), although we encourage players to use the spoiler tags for screenshots. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play.

After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state (preferably in the post title) your victory date and score, as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory! , We will create a separate thread with the results at the end of the two week period (sorted by date and score). Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game. Some players like to replay the game, and although we will not record the results from a replay, you can still post your new experiences. The game will not be closed as such, but after two weeks, the results will be compiled, and will not necessarily be updated with reports coming in after the finish date.

File Upload System
We now have a game file upload system you can find here. Please use it to upload your completed first attempt by saving the game on the turn after your victory or defeat. (by using the "lemme play one more turn" feature)

This game runs for two weeks and ends Monday, 16 May 2011.

The Save can be found here.
 
Horrible starts are good, they keep the lesser players down. ;)

Looks like the plan is to settle on a cotton, and move the warrior E-SE to confirm there's nothing useful over there. Not necessarily in that order.
 
Why would you settle on a cotton (and lose the Bazaar bonus) when you could settle next to a mountain?
 
Dave is looking at getting a short-term bonus over a long-term one. By settling on the cotton, he gets +2 gpt immediately. Assuming he gets a pop in 11 turns, he gains 20 gold by settling on the cotton. Additionally, he gets to sell that cotton as soon as he researches Calender, rather than having to wait 14 turns. That's an additional 140 gold, if you value it at 10gpt (which is what you get from a max-value trade). It's even higher if there are other resources within range that you can improve, or if you don't have a worker by the time you learn calender. All this in return for losing one turn of research/production/gold.

By comparison, moving one east to settle next to a mountain is, in my opinion, a horrible starting move. You have a single flood plains for food, and you're distancing yourself from the luxuries. That's trading a LOT of early development for +50% science which won't even come online for a long time, if ever. At the point in the game where I get Astronomy, my build queue is so full of wonders I'd never have time to build an Observatory, and my gold would be going to buying RAs and culture buildings.

Personally, I've not decided where to go. I'll send the warrior out to see if I can find the second luxury (most maps have 2 types of lux within 3 tiles of your starting position, though the last GotM did not). Unless I see something to change my mind, I'll probably cross the river W and settle there, giving me river on four sides. As nice as the Bazaar is, it too will not come online for quite awhile, so losing an extra cotton isn't that big of a loss.
 
The bright side is that it is not an OCC game. :mischief:

oh, it will be ;)

or at least a puppet empire.

...

I think for the first move, it'd be wise to move the warrior SE/SW to get on the hill on the other side of the river. That should let you see more of the tiles below the settler/cotton. Move the settler west across the river and to the cotton.

Next turn, you can move the warrior W/W (or so depending on tiles) to see if you need to shift another tile south with the settler if there's incense or wine visible via the warrior. I would rather take yet another turn to settle if I can land directly in the middle of 3+ incense/wine and still keep some cotton.
 
Well my initial thought is that I would never pass up the opportunity to settle my capitol on a river and next to a mountain. The science boost from the observatory would be large considering going for a 2-4 city (at most) tall empire. Even though the VC is culture I would want to boost science as much as possible to get to the later techs ASAP, although I guess you could just buy your way there through RAs IF the AI has the cash on Emperor (a big IF).

Plus, it appears that production will be good by settling one tile to the east (lots of river hills). I also wouldn't be surprised if the coast is one more tile to the west (they love to start you 3 tiles up river from coast).
 
Well my initial thought is that I would never pass up the opportunity to settle my capitol on a river and next to a mountain. The science boost from the observatory would be large considering going for a 2-4 city (at most) tall empire. Even though the VC is culture I would want to boost science as much as possible to get to the later techs ASAP, although I guess you could just buy your way there through RAs IF the AI has the cash on Emperor (a big IF).

Plus, it appears that production will be good by settling one tile to the east (lots of river hills). I also wouldn't be surprised if the coast is one more tile to the west (they love to start you 3 tiles up river from coast).

For a science victory, I might agree, but Culture is a different beast. You're racing to get to Astronomy, then you're focusing on culture infrastructure. You simply don't have the time or gold to build an Observatory.
 
I'd move the settler the warrior's spot and build the capital there. That will put the first cotton in the 2nd ring and allow building the observatory. This also lets you get the 2nd cotton in a 2nd city easier, thus giving you a total of 4 cotton from the bazaar in both cities. Therefore, you'd be able to make 3 cotton trades without trading away all your cotton for a much larger monetary bonus than you'd get from settling on top of the first one.

I'd probably move the warrior due south to the hill on the other side of the river, due east to that hill or SE to the hill between those two. Then I'd have him circle around the area to reveal as much near home as I could first.

Since this is Emperor level, I'd probably build a worker first, to get started on some farms, then some warriors.
 
For a science victory, I might agree, but Culture is a different beast. You're racing to get to Astronomy, then you're focusing on culture infrastructure. You simply don't have the time or gold to build an Observatory.

given that this is a cultural game, if you aren't hitting Astronomy to get into the Renaissance fast, you're going the wrong way. Then you need to go 2 techs beyond Astronomy ASAP - mixed with or followed by going to Acoustics. (which is actually the longest part of the beginning phase. So there's plenty of time for an observatory.
 
given that this is a cultural game, if you aren't hitting Astronomy to get into the Renaissance fast, you're going the wrong way. Then you need to go 2 techs beyond Astronomy ASAP - mixed with or followed by going to Acoustics. (which is actually the longest part of the beginning phase. So there's plenty of time for an observatory.

I would have to respectfully disagree. In my capital, I have to build: Stonehenge, Oracle, Chichen Itza, Porcelain Tower, National College, and the Louvre, while also building or buying a Monument, Library, University, Temple, while also buying 4-6 RAs. Not to mention that once I get to Acoustics I have to build an Opera House, Museum, and Hermitage. I simply don't have time or money to build an Observatory, especially not at the cost of delaying my growth.

What I'm trying to say is that by the time I actually got the Observatory up and running, I would no longer need the extra science, therefore moving one spot over and starting in a slower development spot just so I can build something I won't need doesn't make sense to me.
 
I'm going to move the warrior down and across the river for some extended visibility. Probably will settle in place. Considering building monument first instead of scout, which will slow exploration, but want to get culture rolling. First SP pick will be Tradition, then Liberty and fill out latter tree. Will only pick Honor if barbs seem to be set to raging. Going to try this game with no RAs also.
 
I think I'm going to use Dave McW's strategy for start position...

I'm trying to figure out how to weigh the Arab trade route bonus vs. the small verticle empire requirement for a cultural victory. I know roads make a trade route between cities, and a harbor can make trade routes between coastal cities.... anything else? I know rivers provided trade routes in Civ IV, but I didn't think it was the case in Civ V... anybody want to correct me?

It just seems that a cultural victory really neuters the arab ability to go horizontal. hmmmm... I think I'll try a warrior rush and puppet a neighbor, then use a second city to connect up some trade routes...
 
I know rivers provided trade routes in Civ IV, but I didn't think it was the case in Civ V... anybody want to correct me?
Correct, rivers do not provide trade routes in Civ 5.

It just seems that a cultural victory really neuters the arab ability to go horizontal. hmmmm... I think I'll try a warrior rush and puppet a neighbor, then use a second city to connect up some trade routes...
Lots of puppets will still allow you to take advantage of the trade route bonus while keeping policy costs as low as possible.
 
Correct, rivers do not provide trade routes in Civ 5.

Lots of puppets will still allow you to take advantage of the trade route bonus while keeping policy costs as low as possible.



Thankee kindly for the info Monthar. Opening strategy locked and loaded then... I'll give it a go this evening.
 
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