BOTM 26 - Starts 15 January

[Niklas]

BOTM 26: Native Americans

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm26civ.jpg[/img]

Game Details:

This month you will take on the role of Sitting Bull, leading his Native Americans to grandeur on a standard* Continents map. I hope the starting position is to your liking.

Game settings:
Civilization: Native Americans (Leader: Sitting Bull; Traits: Philosophical, Protective)
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Emperor
Map: Continents
Climate: Temperate
Sealevel: Medium
Mapsize: Standard
World wrap: Cylindrical
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No Tribal Villages, No Random Events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Sitting Bull:
Sitting Bull is Philosophical and Protective and starts with Fishing and Agriculture. The Philosophical trait +100% Great People birth rate, and +100% production bonus towards University. Protective gives Drill I and City Garrison I as free promotions to all Archery and Gunpowder units, and +100% production bonus towards Walls and Castle.

Unique unit: Dog Soldier (replaces Axeman)
Dog Soldiers have a lower base strength than ordinary Axemen, only 4. To make up for it they get +100% against melee instead of the Axeman's +50%, and don't require Copper to build.

Unique building: Totem Pole (replaces Monument)
On top of the customary culture bonus of Monuments, the Totem Pole also gives +3 xp to all Archery units built in the city.

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


Adventurer Class bonuses:
Game will be played on Monarch level.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Game will be played on Immortal level, but will score as Emperor.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:00:01 on 15 January 2010, 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 February 2010.

PLEASE NOTE that there will be no separate "Saves Available" thread for this game.

Civ version

This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Warlords or vanilla Civ), patched to version 3.19. It must also be played with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.001. Note that for game security reasons this BUFFY mod version requires you to be logged in with an account that has admin privileges when you are playing for your game to be a valid entry to the GOTM competition. You'll see a warning dialog if you attempt to start a session without appropriate privileges.

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.

* You know what Erkon says - never trust a map maker.

 

[Deckhand]

I hope the starting position is to your liking.

Depends. What's to the left, desert? or flood plains and resources!
Settle SE for sheep, super GP Farm, extra hammers initially, and build Moai?
I'm settling in place for the gold.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Game will be played on Immortal level, but will score as Emperor.

I like this. The really good players will still vastly outscore me, but they don't get the bonus for the harder level.

* You know what Erkon says - never trust a map maker.

Oh No! I thought it was just Erkon we couldn't trust.

Sitting Bull.

Spoiler :

Played a recent multi-player game as Sitting Bull, my first thought was yuck, we civFanatics hate him. But I did great because I had good land. Built a lot of wonders with stone and marble. We play friendly, no human-human early warring, so his defensive bonuses didn't matter at all. The philosophical was very nice. But it was on Noble.

Harass our neighbors with archers?
Poison their water?

 

[Rusten]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh..... this start is giving me a head-ache! Irrigated corn vs plains hill+fishing -- which wins again? And now there's the oasis to consider as well (big plus for worker first). But then again, why get workers yourself when you can just as easily steal them.

I may just have to test run this one before playing.

And I missed that the SE hill is plains too, that complicates it further.

 

[pollock]

Think settle in place for the gold research bonus. Possibly go for a workboat start but i dunno. Then dog soldier rush someone

 

[adrianj]

Settling 1SE gives a monster of a GP Farm. I'm thinking settle the capital there and keep an eye out for a nice cottageable city somewhere else to move the palace+oxford+bureau to. Near the gold maybe...

 

[Deckhand]

Settling 1SE gives a monster of a GP Farm. I'm thinking settle the capital there and keep an eye out for a nice cottageable city somewhere else to move the palace+oxford+bureau to. Near the gold maybe...

Move warrior NW to see fogged tiles to W. Is 1 Sheep worth giving up the Gold and those tiles?

 

[kcd_swede]

Think settle in place for the gold research bonus. Possibly go for a workboat start but i dunno. Then dog soldier rush someone

I've been playing Sitting Bull on continents at emperor level for the HoF Challenger Series which I shamelessly make a pitch for here.

I experienced many failures using that kind of (Dog Soldier rush) thinking. Basically, Dog Soldiers are good for choking or for defending against a stack of melee units, but totally suck as city attackers against archers. You are better off using chariots (which can at least withdraw).

And to top it off... having a resourceless UU is almost a guarantee that you will get the resource needed for the regular unit. Expect copper lying somewhere nearby... something of a Murphy's Law (you only get it when you don't need it).

With all this food (which sensibly should be divided between two cities), taking advantage of SB's philisophical trait is the way to go. I expect really fast cultural finish dates with this start, as gold will speed up that wonder that lets you use pacifism from the start (Swede_begone Pie Ya).

Just a thought.

 

[pollock]

With alot of early rushes the plans not to take the citys but as you say choke, steal workers and pillage . Taking citys may also be a valid option if use 3 drill archers to stop reinforcements coming to an ill defended city and then dog rush it . With a gold capital on emperor level catapults cant be that far away either if go research heavy early.

 

[Jasonc]

This start makes me nervous. I'm guessing the land west is desert and/or we are issolated! I may go for a cultural victory this time around...

 

[Jasonc]

With alot of early rushes the plans not to take the citys but as you say choke, steal workers and pillage .

Hello Pollock. I'd like to read more on the early rush strategies, as I can never quite manage to get them right on my own. Can you recommend any articles or advice?

 

[srad]

Nice start for a philo leader. There seems to be no food shortage.

Settling in place looks good to me. Starts with work-boats are tricky to play for me. Should do some testing.

 

[unclethrill]

The rules say Buffy .001 but .002 is now the current HOF version. I just want to be clear on the proper version to have installed.

 

[Niklas]

The rules say Buffy .001 but .002 is now the current HOF version. I just want to be clear on the proper version to have installed.

This game requires BUFFY-3.19.001 as stated. Thank you for bringing it to attention, it's not unlikely someone could have been bitten otherwise.

 

[pollock]

Hi JasonC , The article section at http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/military_strategy_tactics has some nice articles. The early rush one in PDF format is quite good . Think its just trial and error. On immortal and diety you can very rarely take a capital with an early rush and camping outside in 1 stack wont work cause they'll reinforce that point faster than can build up. Need use infiltration tactics through the forests to isolate a city and pick it off . Once get a static grip on war shouldn't be afraid of peacefully building up with the odd settler behind. The pillaging should hopefully pay for some of your army and capturing an ill defended city or 2 the rest

 

[Fluroscent]

Similar to challenge I-I, and even a mapfinderish start. But conquest is not Sitting Bulls forte...
Early war is best done with horse archers, not having axes available and all. Swords also an option, but I find HAs to be more practical on normal speed. But then again, the food screams slavery and early academy, so BW+Writing should be priority.

Think in place wins for capital site. The difference as a GP farm is only the sheep, which is just a 4 tile. There may be floodplains to the west to match it. Settling on PH is nice though..

Options: No Tribal Villages, No Random Events

 

[azzaman333]

That start location is way too good.

 

[Infantry#14]

I bet Monty and Shaka are closeby...

 

[lroumen]

Hmmm... many possibilities for this start. I will definately start by settling in place though, but before or after moving the warrior, that is a good question. If I settle in place I don't need to move the warrior 1NW to see what's beyond the forests since I'll spot that right away.

That leaves the possibility to move the warrior 1SW, which is a better choice in my opinion. It will immediately determine whether the spot 2W of the sheep is a good site for a second city (seems to be plains-hills too and is supplied by fresh water to boot).

The start position does scream for an early scientist farm. I think I will start out with that first and adopt caste system-monarchy pretty fast. If I see enough city spots for a cultural victory I will swap over the scientists for artists. No problem with contamination that way since I'll build the national epic in there and maybe even a national park if the forests survive long enough. With this much food there is a high chance I'll just slave everything and only mine the gold... that way the forests prosper long enough except when I decide to go for a wonder in this city.

Rather than outgrow happiness, this first city will spend a lot of time building settlers and workers, workboats, one granary, one lighthouse, one library, one national epic and nothing else probably except for maybe an odd warrior/dog soldier or health building if required.

Edit: In addition archerspam the initial city and the future bureaucracy capital (second site as indicated above 2W of sheep?) for monarchy bonuses and fake-army-strength to deter AIs. I just hope to get enough cities out before the barbarians start to become a pain. Dog soldiers should help with fogbusting though.

 

[lymond]

I'm thinking the starting location is also good simply for taking out a less than productive tile, unless we make this a prod city which is unlikely. Interesting start and even more interesting is what's behind that fog.

 

[Jasonc]

I bet Monty and Shaka are closeby...

I'm hoping for an All American start. I'd love to play on a big contient with the American Civilizations. By the looks of the map, maybe we are starting on the upper East Coast in the North America...