BtS archipelago high seas tropics monarch

[Dave Hartwick]

I've been lurking about for couple weeks now, so hiya, I've enjoyed reading these SGs. I missed the last couple intakes, so I'll try kicking one off myself.

I'm late to the party, obviously. I only started playing Civ IV about 3 months ago, and only picked up BtS the week before last. Love it, except I have a hard time putting it down.

As for the actual game I have in mind, I really enjoy archipelago maps. Recently I tried high sea level and was surprised at how much of a change there was. Starts tend to be isolated, and I had to think harder about where I was going with the tech tree. Of course, I'm playing at prince level, so I'm not talking an insurmountable challenge here. Plus the AIs don't seem to change their game so much from the usual land-based strategies, so in some ways it's advantageous.

Anyway, I'm suggesting a succession game with standard size map, high sea level, tropic climate (this limits the ice -- I seem to start near the poles a lot) on monarch difficulty. I play on prince difficulty, like I said, but SG's seem to attract at least one emperor level player-- plus there's that whole trying not to publicly embarrass yourself so you try harder thing-- so monarch sounds pretty safe. I'm open to suggestions on this.

For civs, I like the Dutch, but I like Carthage better. Willem's creative trait isn't so helpful as Hannibal's extra happiness, seeing how you can't count on getting resources with so little land, especially in the early game. I'm open to suggestions on this one, too.

Epic length seems to be the standard around here. I play normal, myself, but if epic's better for SGs, it's better, so go with that.

Round duration, I'm undecided. Hopefully nobody out there has round duration as the deciding factor on whether or not to play.

For the rule set for this, uh, well, the usual etiquette: post if you can't make your round. Have your save posted within 48 hours. Try not to get too upset if somebody does something you disagree with. Discuss big moves prior, such as declaring war or a change in the agreed upon plan. Log your tech trades and the changes you make at the start of your round. Be amusing. If it's OK, I'd like your email address so I can send you an alert-- I was recently reading a thread where silk mentioned forum-generated alert emails not getting through.

I don't expect to post a lot of graphics myself as my PC is a mutt. I should also mention that the game will be generated with BUG installed, if that's a problem.

As Emperor Joseph II used to say: Well, there it is.

Roster:

Arlborn
Sengir
Loki Strikes
Dave Hartwick
nocho
silk1976
dualmaster

 

[nocho]

Hi! I wouldn't mind joining this if you'll have me.

I've been a long time lurker of these forums myself and it would be fun to join a SG one day. Usually I'm quite comfortable at monarch, but in solo games at higher levels my attention span seems to falter, although I managed emperor a couple of times. A SG seems to counter this, or so they say... So for me you could up the level a bit (especially with archipelago high seas as the AIs will be quite hampered in the beginning as well), but monarch is fine too for a first time SG experience.

 

[nocho]

By the way, I think according to forum etiquette you should announce this SG in the stickied "Civ 4 Sucession Game Registration Thread!"...

 

[Dave Hartwick]

Thanks, nocho. It's fixed now. You're in, of course.

I'm willing to go emperor, but I've got smoked on a few maps like this at prince, usually due to crummy starts. I guess it depends on who else shows up. If I'm the junior partner, emperor should be fine.

I'll put together multiple starts to choose from once all's settled, so that may help with the CrapStart(tm) problem.

 

[silk1976]

I'd like to join.

I'm currently playing my single games on noble and have played a couple SG's on prince. So this would be a good learning experience for me. I tried a single player arch game a few weeks ago and it was vastly different from continents - so I'd like to have another crack at it in a more learning environment.

Also - you mention having BUG installed. I made a mistake in my first SG (Silk01) where I started the game with BUG installed as a MOD. Ended up losing a player because of it. I'd highly recommend against that (installing it as a MOD). BUG 3.6 has an option for installing as a single player. The benefit of that install method is that if someone wants to use it, they can - but if they dont (ie, they are crazy!) they dont absolutely have to.

HA! Just reread your OP and you referenced some alerts issues I had. If you want pvt email that is fine - but I think I figured out what happened in that instance - or, more accurately, I think I've figured out the mechanics of when it send an email. I've partially resolved the issue for myself by checking the forums several times a day.

EDIT: Not that it matters much, but even though I'm trying to limit my involvement in SG's with the nicer weather coming around - I'm willing to sacrifice some of my single player game time for this type of SG (a water map).

 

[dualmaster]

I'll join up, if you'll have me. I'm very comfortable with monarch.

Both Dutch and Carthage are strong choices for this type of map. If we want the strongest leader for the map, I would lean toward Willem. Hannibal is still a good choice - the Cothon is nice for a trade route economy and financial is excellent for water maps. His UU will likely be useless. IMO the strength of charismatic is greatly lessened on maps because of more limited fighting. Willem has financial and creative - creative is a powerful trait with free border pops and cheap libraries. His UB makes coastal and island cities far more powerful once you get steam power, and his UU is pretty good for intercontinental war at Astronomy.

I'll go with either.

 

[Arlborn]

I am a prince/monarch player myself and I'd love to join. I lurk SGs for years, never really had the time or opportunity to play. Now it is my chance.

I am comfortable with any setting you choose, just know that I am a bit too peaceful and cultural at times! It does give fun games though, trying to defend yourself from a 10 times bigger invasion force and what-not...

But yes, I do know how to go on offensive.

 

[nocho]

Thanks, Dave.

I also think that the Dutch are probably the strongest choice on this map, but played them quite a lot. So Carthage sounds like a good alternative, or maybe another financial sweet guy like Ragnar could be fun as well .

As to BUG, I have it installed and like it quite a lot so wouldn't do without it... Don't know though whether I have the latest version, but I'll happily upgrade to 3.6 like Silk suggested.

Oh, and I'm fine with monarch, wouldn't like to have your crapstart (tm) on emperor .

 

[Arlborn]

I use BUG 3.6 too, I have it installed both in custom assets(single player install option) and in a MOD folder. But I'd recommend to play with it using custom assets, so anybody who plays without it, or with an older version, can still play the game without issues.


EDIT: Ah, please don't make it too easy! I vote for a random leader! Always fun to adapt, specially in a SG.

 

[silk1976]

Ragnar could be fun.

There was a thread I was reading recently about this, and the top 3 tended to be Willem, Hannibal and Ragnar (in no particular order).

It seems like if we want something more peaceful and tech/culture heavy, go with Willem or Hannibal. If we want a lot of war, Ragnar.

Doesn't matter to me FWIW. In fact, for this SG all I care about is that its archipelago. So when discussion options, consider me ok with anything

 

[Sengir]

I'd like to join as well. Haven't played a archi map since Vanilla, so would like to play one once again. I'm fine with Monarch (usually play prince/monarch solo), but Emperor should be fine as well on an archi map especially with one of the stronger civs. I play with BUG mod as well, so no problems there (that is, I have it in single player mode, not as mod).

 

[Loki Strikes]

If you have room for one more I'd love to join, never played an sg been meaning to get in, I normally play emperor/immortal but I rarely play archipelago and never archi with high sea levels so it would be interesting

 

[Dave Hartwick]

I'll cut off the sign on here, great response and a bit of a relief because I thought this might go like a lead galley. Thanks, all.

I took the player list in order of post and randomly picked a starter for the rotation:

Arlborn 1
Sengir 2
Loki Strikes 3
Dave Hartwick 4
nocho 5
silk1976 6
dualmaster 7

Let's have a simple vote on the civilization to play (I'll provide the tie breaker if needed):

Ragnar
Willem
Hannibal
Random leader, as in "anybody but those guys".

I'll go with Monarch difficulty. If you're concerned that'll be too easy, vote for Random. Also, there will be multiple starts posted, and you can vote for a weak one.

I believe BUG is up to date and installed as silk advised (ie, not as a mod). I have the current official patch installed, but not the unofficial. I'm willing to install it if it makes a difference. I'll post a sample game if there are any concerns.

Seeing how I don't play epic duration and never played a SG before, I'm at a loss as to round durations and need suggestions...

 

[silk1976]

My vote:
Random leader
monarch difficulty is fine
The SG's I've been in have been ~20 turns BC, ~10 turns AD, with some flexibility as needed in order to reach a good checkpoint.

Posting a sample game would be a good idea - just to be sure it can be loaded by everyone.

 

[Arlborn]

Doh, epic is it? I think first goes 25 turns, second 20 and then 15 for everyone? It should always be flexible by the way, at least I think it works better when things happen, like, if somebody declares war on turn 13 of your set, it is probably a good idea to stop and let the next one take, after discussions of course. Same for new cities, important techs and etc. But you guys decide!

Monarch diff. I am still voting for random leader by the way!

EDIT: Maybe we should even pick only good AIs against us? Specially the ones good on sea!

But random AIs is good enough.

 

[dualmaster]

Hannibal would be fun since I've never played him on an arch map.

I'd also be fine with random.

 

[silk1976]

Oh wait a minute - I just realized something. When I said random leader, I meant random between hannibal, ragnar and willem (ie, I dont care) - not random throughout the whole spectrum of leaders. It just occured to me that the 'random' option didn't necessarily mean random between those 3 leaders. Not sure why I thought that.

 

[Dave Hartwick]

If you don't have a preference, silk, no worries.

I like Arlborn's idea of stacking the AIs to succeed on water. Seeing how Ragnar, Willem, and Hannibal are considered the best, how about the two we don't pick are assured opponents with the rest random? If we vote to take a random civ ourselves, all three go in as opponents. Unless there are objections, let's use that idea.

 

[nocho]

If you don't have a preference, silk, no worries.

I like Arlborn's idea of stacking the AIs to succeed on water. Seeing how Ragnar, Willem, and Hannibal are considered the best, how about the two we don't pick are assured opponents with the rest random? If we vote to take a random civ ourselves, all three go in as opponents. Unless there are objections, let's use that idea.

And I was hoping for backward troopspammers like monty, toku and alex as opponents . No seriously, I like the idea. I'd vote for being Hannibal because I barely played him and seems to be nice allround. Opponents Willem, Ragnar and I'd toss in Joao who I think is quite good on watery maps as well. Other good ones I guess are any financial or more builder-type of leaders. But with 3 good preselected opponents we might as well have 3 totally random as well to avoid a totally peaceful world resembling a carribean-style lovefest .

 

[Sengir]

I like that idea (picking either Ragnar, Willem or Hannibal ourselves and the other two as opponents). That said, I don't have a preference for one of the three. Turnsets should indeed be flexible (no stopping one turn before researching Bronze Working), but as Silk said, 20 turns BC/ 10 AD usually works best (though the first to play may want to play 25/30).