BOTM 23 First Spoiler - 500AD

There's not much room for creativity with city placement here. ;)

Weirdly tough map for noble... Though I think in my case the difficulty had something to do with a barb uprising event that I didn't notice until there was a stack of archers 2t from my city... I'll post my spoiler later - no access to game right now.
 
I'm pretty sure that's the "field of view" slider in the upper right of the BUFFY UI.

Alternatively, you can change the amount of "zooming" in and out with your mouse wheel or the Page Up and Page Down keys.

There's one "sweet spot" of zooming out where the lay of the land appears to be relatively flat. That "sweet spot" seems to be just prior to the amount of zooming out where your units disappear off of the map and clouds start to be visible.

I haven't played around much with the Field of View slider, but it appears that you can combine different values of the "Field of View" with different amounts of zoom to get a whole slew of different angles to look at your Civ.
 
jesusin, contender. Goal: Gold medal

Start:

Scout SE-NE, settle in place, I don't like my capital, it's a good place to start a civ with lots of hammers but won't support a Bureaucracy-cottages-Oxford research powerhouse. I'll probably be moving my palace.

Early research: Agric-Mining-BW-Sail
Early production: Worker-Warrior-Warrior-Settler-Worker-Settler-Worker
Early worker tasks: farm the corn, mine the sheep
Early cities: SW by 2 seaffod and gold, E by cow+copper+wheat.


REXing:

Having seen the Stone, I want to settle it fast and get Pyramids.
Research Wheel-PH-Wri-Maths-CoL (ignoring Pott and AH).
Settling: Stone W. Fish NE.

1000 BC Stats: 5 cities, 18 pop, set, 4 workers, 7units(1Gal), 2+ strategic resources, 1 luxury resources, 4 health resources, 0 great persons, 0 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=52-45-47, 25 sustainable beakers per turn, 12 culture per turn, 0 great person points per turn, 50 gold, 1lh. 0 religions, 0/0 cottages used, 13 Techs: Maths, BW, Sail, PH, no Pott, no AH. 0 civs killed. 3 hours played.

Pyramids in capital, Moai in Gold city, settle deer+gold.

Fail to get CS sling by 3 turns. Oh my! I could have had CoL for free ages ago. What to do now? Alpha? No, let's go for CS anyway.

Axes attacking protective archers doesn't feel right... although I keep finding single warrior cities... anyway, lots of land to settle, delay war.
When I am ready I will take Ramses, cause his capital is great for Oxford. I keep my GS unused, an Academy in the current capital is a complete waste. That's why I worker steal him 3 times. A pity I dedice to disband the worker the first 2 times, since an intelligent AI would have easily recovered the Worker by killing my warrior with his Axe. He never attacked.

Revolt to Castes+Bureaucracy, build GLH and HG, settle crab+fur for happiness, corn and silver W, fish+corn+copper on Ramses' coast.

2 unpleasant things: I am seeing parts of the map I haven't explored, hurricanesdon't allow me to choose to lose pop instead of buildings (a bug?).

1AD Stats: 10 cities, 49 pop, 9 workers, 17 units (2Gal), 3 strategic resources, 2 luxury resources, 5 health resources, 1 great persons, 3 world wonders, 1 national wonders, food/production/commerce=125-74-195, 117 sustainable beakers per turn, 61 culture per turn, 56 great person points per turn, 150 gold. 1 religions. 0/0 cottages used, 17 Techs: CS, MC, no AH,no Alpha, no IW. 0 civs killed. 8.5 hours played.


Heading for war:

I am forced to revolt to slavery by a barb Axe. Start building Maces 100AD, when they research Alpha at last and I get to build granaries, pasture the sheep, etc.

Take 2 barb cities defended by barbs, finish MoM and Colossus just because my hammers were ahead of my research.

Research: CS, Machinery, Currency, Educ. I have zero cottages, but my economy is ok due to GLH and number of cities. Bulb one of my 2GS on Educ, keep the GE for SoL in the future.

Attack Ramses when I gather 6 maces in his lands, take 1 of his 3 cities, losing 2. The rest of the AIs have 4 cities, but Hammy (9).

500AD: 13cities, 78pop, 26 mil units (9Maces), 9wor, CS, Educ, Machi, no Constr, no Aest. 150 sust bpt.


Comments:

I don't enjoy Noble games, they are too luck dependant when you are fighting to be the number one. Also I don't know how to abuse them to perfection, I tried to get a CS sling without sacrificing anything in my REXing and I went too far. Also a crazy-Axe attack could have been much more rewarding, considering how late there were virtually undefended cities.

This map is great, though, poses very interesting challenges even at Noble!
 
Contender, conquest goal. Plan to leverage Philosophical trait to get Construction rapidly and leverage Odeons to grow the empire into a military machine.

Teched Ag, AH, Writing, Alpha, (trade mining & wheel), Sailing, (trade BW) by 2000BC.

4000BC Scouted NE. If I settle E then at size 5 (early limit) I can work farmed wheat and sheep pasture for 11:food:, leaving me PH, river PH and river GH to mine for my army. Sweet. Won't want slavery in that scenario. At size 5, capital will earn 12:food:14:hammers:4:commerce:. While running my scientists at size 5, I work sheep, wheat and river PH. Also sweet. Later there are up to four grasslands I can farm and two more hills to mine. I plan to pop three great scientists ASAP.

3920BC scouted further E... looks like river-cow-wheat for a commerce city

3840BC Athens border-pop reveals marble. Glad I didn't scout west, that would have told me nothing. Was worried we might be on an island canal, but it looks like scoutty can get out down south.

3480BC WTH? I have visibility on some city site heaps north? Did we get moved and DynamicSpirit not update our fog of war?

3400BC Scoutty hopes those mountains on the far east of the southern ice-peninsula are not blocking him!

3360BC Worker built, farms wheat. Scoutty is free! (he thinks)

3280BC Scoutty is free... AH pops BFC horses FTW! Tech writing.

2800BC Writing, take OB with the world, such as we know it. Have sent second warrior to contact the Chinese. First warrior finds gems and carries on. Tech Alpha.

2600BC Meet Chinese finally.

2560BC Grow to size 5, finish Library. Didn't even have to MM that timing!

2520BC Scoutty meets Izzy. Capital output is 22.5:science:13:hammers: with 2 extra :food: and 6 scientist :gpp:. Building settler. Need a wharf, by the look of it.

2160BC GS#1 -> academy.

2080BC Trade BW from Ramesses... non-BFC copper. Oh well. I've gotten great value from those horses! Don't take slavery. Built settler, need another worker now.

2040BC Fire ants eat my sheep pasture. That event will recur. Perhaps the steel-woolers have an idea or two :-)

2000BC Turn espionage off Chinese - they're the first target.

1960BC Settled Wharf to get cow-gem-cross-canal-corn. Teched Sailing, started IW (swords are optional, but we want those gems). Started alternating 0 and 100 on the slider. Darn, my river is no good for trade routes until I build a road to it.

1880BC Pottery came available, but Chinese only wanted Alpha for it, so traded with Ramesses instead.

1720BC Meet Zara in Chinese territory. He'll trade Mysticism. Clearly people haven't met each other yet.

1680BC IW. Iron in Wharf - excellent. Tech maths.

1520BC RIP Scoutty. He didn't quite finish proving there's no land bridge north of Ramesses. GS#2, settled in Athens. Cow up in Wharf. Turn scientists off for the moment want my two other cities up ASAP.

1480BC NW of Wharf you sure can see the map was hand-edited! Rivers along coastline indeed! Cheer for fresh water, though.

1440BC Finally replaced sheep pasture. Capital still size 5 producing 38.5:science:10:hammers: and 6 spare :food: No mines yet. Building road on pasture, since I'm sure to need it again!

1400BC Tech maths. Now I diverge from plan. Isabella's capital is worth +3:commerce: so I'm going to get currency before construction. Also I haven't been able to trade for Masonry yet, and I'm hoping for that. So not ready for conquest yet - need a sound economy.

1280BC Settle Cottageville (gold/fish/crab)
1240BC Galley up - sent exploring north

1160BC Gems and Athens river PH mine both up.

1120BC Trade Archery from Chinese for Maths. The poor communications network is really hampering my Alphabet strategy. Hope they chop the Pyramids for me. Last settler up, Athens goes back to scientists.

1080BC Weird. That city site to which we had visibility is too close to Sitting Bull to be our starting location - unless he's been moved as well!

1040BC Tech currency. That was worth 10:science:pt before my last city is even up. Also I can extort cash for my crap techs. Start MC. This will not be a fast conquest, so get those forges up.

1000BC Founded city on top of cow getting fish-wheat-river

975BC Ramesses completes Kashi Vish. I finally meet Babs. Trade Poly and Medi out of him.

950BC Trade PH from Babs.

850BC MC, start Monarchy.

825BC Finally I get to trade Masonry when some unknown builds the 'mids - probably Zara. Hmm, Sitting Bull has an island.

800BC Get Mono from Izzy. Chinese built the 'mids. Excellent!

725BC Monarchy, revolt and switch to HR+slavery since the flanks cities now want slavery. Ramesses builds oracle. Later I find out he bulbed Theology. Good work, loser.

700BC I get the Vedic Aryans, eh? LOL, they're archers on the other side of the canal from cottageville. I'll cope!

625BC Chinese build Great Wall also at some point. Grew Athens to size 7 about now.

475BC Hmm herbalists. Nah, the game won't be long enough.

375BC GS#3. No more specialists. Build me an army.

50BC Trade Calendar from Chinese

25AD DOW Chinese with mix of swords, axes, Xbows and cats. Lose opening Trireme v Galley. grrr

75AD Shanghai falls... no more Iron Mr. Chinese.

225AD Beijing falls, got Pyramids, Great Wall, Mausoleum

250AD Chinese capitulate

275AD CS... revolt to Bureau+Rep

425AD Guilds. DOW Ramesses

450AD HBR - bring on the knights

475AD Aesthetics
 
This played much harder than I anticipated. I know the game designer did say it would play like canals so I anticipated having to ferry all troops, but the lack of happy resources made this play more like monarch. Especially with no pyramids.

Gems, gold, silk and Odeons. What more do you need? :)
 
3480BC WTH? I have visibility on some city site heaps north? Did we get moved and DynamicSpirit not update our fog of war?

Nah, I didn't move you. I do remember at one point while adding the canals I misclicked and gave you all an extra unit - a cute little lion, located on the water! I suspect it may have been forgetting to delete the extra fog of war when I removed him.

Impressive how I managed to test-play two games to 1000ADish without noticing :)

(An earlier version of the map had a much bigger problem - Pericles was an AI as well as the player. I've no idea how that happened, but fixing it was how Ramesses came in. Oddly, the game played perfectly fine with two Pericles - though it was a very odd sensation when I was exploring and met myself... :crazyeye: )
 
On Hurricanes: As I recall, you can only choose to lose population iff you don't have any buildings to lose.
If you have no buildings to lose, how would that be a 'choice' ? ;)
 
Pericles was an AI as well as the player. I've no idea how that happened, but fixing it was how Ramesses came in. Oddly, the game played perfectly fine with two Pericles - though it was a very odd sensation when I was exploring and met myself... :crazyeye: )
Madscientist is currently playing an RPC with 18 Montezumas. :eek: :crazyeye:
 
@Airny: Another solution, open your civilizationIV.ini file and change

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 0

with

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 1

You can then toggle camera flying pressing ctrl alt f while playing.
This gives you all the camera options you want to take shiny pics ;)

OT: won't play this one, opened the spoiler threads before the save ;) Su next month guys
 
contender. Goal: Gold medal?! No! Space race this time. :)

The map looks enough hard for a fast SR... Extremely weak capital because of lack of food... :(

Settled 1SE, hoping to find more food and planning to build dike in a future.

Research: agri-anim-wrt-mine-BW-math-sail-myst-medi-priest-col-CS from Oracle(1280BC)-wheel-mason-curr-alpa-aest-lit-MC-cal-paper-edu (25BC by my own bulbs)-machin-feo-guild-dram-mus-philo-nat(450AD)-PPr...

!added previously missed wheel,mason and alpa!
Traded techs: pott, IW, poly, arch, mono, monarchy, constr.

Revs: 1240BC Bur+Cast. 575BC Rep+OR. 550BC Hindu.

Wonds: 1280BC Oracle, 625BC Pyrs+GLh, 425BC GLib, 100BC Colossus, 175AD Oxf, 325AD HG, 450AD MoM.

GPers: 1880BC GS-> Acad, (800BC,200BC,225AD) GSs settled to the capital, 425AD GS and GA from music are waiting so far.

1AD stats. Score 862, pop=49, land=108, tech=47, wond=35. 8 cities, 11 wrks.

500AD stats. Score 1393, pop=86, land=164, tech=70, wond=60. 11 cities, 16wrks, 1 settler.

There were no wars so far.

Early production: Worker-Warrior-Warrior-Settler-Worker-Settler-Worker
Early worker tasks: farm the corn, mine the sheep
Early cities: SW by 2 seaffod and gold, E by cow+copper+wheat.

Early production: Worker-Warrior-Warrior-Lib-Settler...
Early worker tasks: sheep, wheat, horse, 2 mines, Bronze mine...
Early cities: 1N to the gold, E by cow+copper+wheat, 1NE to the stone, 1S to the gems.
 
I'm thinking about what do I want to target from the Oracle (it's a given that I'm going for it...) Mr. Creative Philosopicles is definitely a good chance of the CS slingshot, with a cheap library, and then double :gp: to bulb Maths on the way to CS.

Early production: Worker-Warrior-Warrior-Lib-Settler...

Hmmmm, I think I now know how I could have pulled off the CS sling.

It's great for us newbies to get to learn pieces of wisdom like this one from the masters. Thank you for writing your spoilers!!!
 
i had a newbie moment on this map- delayed going for math/ construction. once i got it, i remembered the odeon bonus for creative leaders...pretty powerful for my big cities!

hearing about the canals, and with the lovely marble, i went for oracle early to get metal casting. didnt give me as much of an advantage as i hoped, although the colossus was a decent consolation
 
Hmmmm, I think I now know how I could have pulled off the CS sling.

Pericles is the best for this: cheap library (and 2 techs away from writing), cheap academy (Gosha got it 1800 bc iirc)...
 
Hmmmm, I think I now know how I could have pulled off the CS sling.

It's great for us newbies to get to learn pieces of wisdom like this one from the masters. Thank you for writing your spoilers!!!
Except I didn't even pull if off :(
Ramesses built the Oracle in 1680 BC in my game - I thought that was unusually quick.
 
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