Barbarian Wrath GOTM?

[Kull]

Just curious, but has there ever been a GOTM with the Barbarian activity level set to "Wrath"? If not, I suspect this might invalidate some of the "brain-stem-level" strategies employed by GOTM cognoscenti, thus providing a much higher level of uncertainty than usual.

 

[Peaster]

Kull, are you insulting our strategies ? Why don't you play in the January GOTM and participate in the spoiler thread ?

I haven't seen any BarbW games among the 10 or so GOTM's I've played. It might be a reasonable new twist, though I expect the spaceship players would like it less than the conquerors. Also, I am not a big fan of uncertainty (my second-favorite game is chess).

Anyway, maybe you could offer a starting position to the Duke and see what he says. If the idea doesn't work here, a small group of Apolyton players, including myself, would probably give it a try. See the Poly/Civ2/General/Holiday T Spoiler thread.

 

[Kull]

Kull, are you insulting our strategies ?

Absolutely not! It was actually a compliment.....in the same way chess masters don't even stop to think when racing through the "Sicilian Defense" or any of the other time-honored openings, I had to chuckle when reading some of the GOTM threads since it sounds like many of you have similar "by-the-book" opening sequences. And I suspect that "Wrath" would throw many of these strategies into utter turmoil (which some might not find pleasant, I grant you!)

 

[ElephantU]

More Barbs? BRING 'EM ON! Seriously, doesn't that require altering the RULES.TXT files? The CFC GOTM usually avoids that.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Also, IIRC, Barbarian Wrath would only work for those people who have Classic, not for those with MPG.

 

[Kull]

More Barbs? BRING 'EM ON! Seriously, doesn't that require altering the RULES.TXT files? The CFC GOTM usually avoids that.

No - Barbarian Wrath was omitted from the "selectable" start-up settings, but it was part of the pre-release Civ2 design. As a result, it can only be initiated by starting a game, saving the file, and then hex editing the "Barbarian Bit". Absolutely nothing else has to be changed. In that respect it would seem to lend itself to GOTM play.

Also, IIRC, Barbarian Wrath would only work for those people who have Classic, not for those with MPG.

Not true. My "Seeds of Greatness" scenario has functional Barbarian Wrath variants available for both FW and MGE (There's not a vanilla version due to the absence of event-language support). It turns out that "Wrath" doesn't function in PBEM games (and thus, probably, multiplayer), but it works fine in single-player MGE.

 

[ElephantU]

Can you create an example game in Classic/2.42 version to post here for testing?

 

[Kull]

Can you create an example game in Classic/2.42 version to post here for testing?

I didn't want to interfere with the existing GOTM, but as an example, here's a 2.42 Wrath game (Normal, King, 7 civs, Wrath, Romans):

 

[Peaster]

Kull, I don't know what Wrath is supposed to look like, but I suspect my barbarians are on barbituates.

I have only seen about 5 of them up to 950bc (all were archers or leaders, all were from boats or huts). Possibly relevant -

I am playing MGE.
My Civilization Score includes "Barbarians (+50)"
I have 12 cities, and MPE, and just conquered the Sioux.
No unusual strategy.

 

[la fayette]

I suspect my barbarians are on barbituates.

I have only seen about 5 of them up to 950bc .

My barbs are seemingly even more lazy
I have played until 1200bc (2.42) and not yet seen the nose of one

 

[la fayette]

Very odd game!
I din't meet a single barb before conquest in 20AD

 

[Kull]

Very odd game!
I din't meet a single barb before conquest in 20AD

Gakkk! I swear guys - I tested this out and it DID produce one huge horde @1400BC......sadly tho I didn't bother to save some screen shots. I'll check out the posted files to see if the hex-edited barb-bit was still set for "wrath".

 

[ElephantU]

Well, the starting save had +50VP for barb level, so that sounds promising. I played to 400BC very lazily (ICS to 10 cities, peace with Chinese and Sioux till the Chinese suprise attacked) and saw only 1 Barb: a Horse from a hut. He disappeared rather than attack my Archer too. Perhaps I should have set it to Reveal Map so I could see other outbreaks - once I got Marco Polo and other civ's maps I've seen some activity elsewhere.

 

[Kull]

Well, I'm at a loss to explain the lack of Barbs. Both savegame files were examined using a hex-editor and they were definitely set for Wrath. To really ratchet up the likelihood of a horde, I created another test file (Carthaginians, Large Map, Deity, 7 Civs), and a horde appeared in 400 BC. Here's a screen shot taken in 150 BC (the horde is just beginning to unfurl):

 

[Kull]

Here's the 4000BC start file for the above-mentioned game: