COTM 06 Pre-Game Discussion

[eldar]

For a settler factory, the Fish is no good 'til you have a harbour. By which time you'll be in Republic anyway, at which point you don't need the harbour if you've irrigated the Wines. Abandon the Fish, settle NE, and get the extra shields.

Neil.

 

[grs]

@Hanabir: Klarius is right - and I have said that very seldom before

 

[ainwood]

Surely, but where would be the problem to up the difficulty a notch? We're not speaking about Deity here.

See it that way: With a builder Civ like Mayans, lower level games can be fun. With a military Civ like Mongols, you can have a lot of fun here as well, by playing against the clock. Same for scientific powerhouses. But EXP really shines only on Emperor and DG, and SEA is almost pointless below Emperor - what's the use of early contacts, when everyone you find is even more backwards?
England or Portugal are among the best Civs for higher levels, but on Monarch it's close to play without traits. Boring.

So... Having expansionist and seafaring on monarch isn't as much of an advantage for the player as on emperor? So does this mean its harder?

I understand that you mean "boring" rather than "difficult". However we do need to cater for a variety of player skills. Keeping game out-of-sync means that if you have conquests, you should always have at least one game per month on a reasonable difficulty. Monarch isn't that bad, and you get a nice Deity classic game in about 3 weeks from now.

Also on the "boredom" side, I actually hope this game will be reasonably interesting. It requires a different focus than other recent games, and I think it is quite well balanced.

 

[dmanakho]

Also on the "boredom" side, I actually hope this game will be reasonably interesting. It requires a different focus than other recent games, and I think it is quite well balanced.

Oh, that sounds promising for sure...
Makes me think where twisted Ainwood's mind put all the resources this time....
I still remember than one tile mountain island with coal on it next to the Theodora's capitol... You could see it, but you couldn't get to it

Oh, and balanced game probably mean that you have persia with iron above you Iroquois with horses below and carthage or greece right next to you...

 

[solenoozerec]

It requires a different focus than other recent games

What focus ?

 

[Hannabir]

For a settler factory, the Fish is no good 'til you have a harbour. By which time you'll be in Republic anyway, at which point you don't need the harbour if you've irrigated the Wines. Abandon the Fish, settle NE, and get the extra shields.

Count the food.

@Hanabir: Klarius is right - and I have said that very seldom before

Count the shields.

Of course, things are likely to change once the scout stands on that mountain.

 

[klarius]

Count the food.
Count the shields.

Of course, things are likely to change once the scout stands on that mountain.

You don't have to stand on the mountain to know that a factory in republic is running:
2 mined hills
1 irrigated wine
2 irrigated grass
1 mined bg
1 plain grass without improvement

is enough.

Work 1 mined hill, the irrigated tiles and the mined bg on size 5. After the growth to 6 MM from the second hill to the plain grass.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

I think I'll play this COTM - my first GOTM/COTM competition.

My analysis: Scout NE - E onto the hill. Worker onto the bonus grassland. I did the worker move onto the BG instead of Wines because on Monarch we get two content citizens, rather than 1 on difficulty levels up higher, so I don't think luxuries to keep citizens happy will be as important for my first city. Also, I want the production to pump out my scouts for a rapid expansion. Hopefully when I pop a settler, it'll actually be near my civ, not 2000 tiles away. My first builds will probably be two or three scouts, a settler and/or granary depending on my city size, and then a settler/granary (whichever one I didn't do before.) I'll send my opening scout East, my second scout South, and my last scout North. And I might build a curragh after my settler/granary finishes...but probably not one early on since I have scouts and there aren't goody huts on the water (I wish!).

Desired Victory Condition: I'll hopefully get control of my continent using Infantry/Tanks/Artillery (I don't like early wars unless necessary), and then just enjoy the game and launch a space ship. Hopefully it shouldn't be *too hard* for me on Monarch...

Looks like fun.

 

[Jurimax]

Hmmmm, looks interesting, I might actually try this one.

On the opening moves, if there are other wines nearby, there could be room for two settler pumps. This will only be viewable after a scout move. If that'd be the case, I'd settle on the spot, irrigate and then road the wines while Lisbon is building scout or curragh. I'd aim at getting a settler out asap.

If not, I'd go scout, scout, ... till settler possible. With all my scouts and research at 0% I would try to snag as many GH as possible, meet the AIs and get a rough idea about our starting continent. (Don't know if the GHs give lots of techs on Monarch, but since we're Exp we won't get barbs.)

Just my 2 cents,

Greetz Jurimax

 

[denyd]

Ginger_Ale: Welcome to our little asylum.

Don't forget that as a seafaring tribe, we start with alphabet and have immediate access to curraghs and for use they are 3 movement units (seafaring bonus) and have a reduced chance of sinking in sea and ocean tiles. Being that this is a continents map and you might be able to reach the other island well before anyone else, which will have a period of exclusive tech trading. Also the curraghs will be able to reach the far side of your continent much quicker than any scout.

My plan for Lisbon is curragh, scout, curragh, settler, granary, settlers

This being a monarch level, the wines + 2 base content citizens, will allow me to get to a size 4 before MPs are needed, hopefully I'll be able to find a second lux and won't need them at all.

 

[Hannabir]

Argggghhhh!!!! Now I get it. All this time I'm thinking that with the white on top, they're all mountains .... Boo to the graphics! (And me. Primarily me. )

Still, the analysis doesn't change much. The fish may help produce a 3-turn settler factory, or else a neighbouring town gets more shields.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Ginger_Ale: Welcome to our little asylum.

Don't forget that as a seafaring tribe, we start with alphabet and have immediate access to curraghs and for use they are 3 movement units (seafaring bonus) and have a reduced chance of sinking in sea and ocean tiles. Being that this is a continents map and you might be able to reach the other island well before anyone else, which will have a period of exclusive tech trading. Also the curraghs will be able to reach the far side of your continent much quicker than any scout.

My plan for Lisbon is curragh, scout, curragh, settler, granary, settlers

This being a monarch level, the wines + 2 base content citizens, will allow me to get to a size 4 before MPs are needed, hopefully I'll be able to find a second lux and won't need them at all.

Yes, I thought of that too. However, on Monarch, I can usually (almost always) out research the AI - especially if I pop some nice techs from huts for trading. However, once I get my cities settled down, curraghs will be used to find either small islands or the other AIs. And yes, 3 move is invaluable in the Ancient Age.

PS: Suicide curraghs *are* legal in the COTM, right? I believe they are, just double checking.

And thank you for welcoming me!!

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

ainwood, I don't expect the cotm to be boring, I consider it boring to play without traits

So... Having expansionist and seafaring on monarch isn't as much of an advantage for the player as on emperor? So does this mean its harder?

Touche...

 

[solenoozerec]

I consider it boring to play without traits

Portuguese indeed have contradictory traits. However, before I started COTM5 I was also sure that Mayan UU is one of the worst. I noticed that so far civs and maps were matched very nicely. And I suspect that this one will not be an exception.

And Ainwood was mentioning “another focus”?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Civilization: Portuguese.
World Size: Standard
World Type: Continents
Barbarians: Sedentary
Ocean Coverage: 60%
Climate: Wet
World Age: 5 Billion Years
Temperature: Temperate
Difficulty: Monarch

Weak UU
New focus

I suspect that the map, resources and opponents are geared to steer us away from domination and conquest victories.

 

[bed_head7]

RFHolloway, we going to give the 100k race a go here or wait for Sumeria next month?

 

[solenoozerec]

Why Ainwood decided to use Snoopy's Terrain Mod?

Can he hide something that way?

Also, the way to make Portuguese UU useful is to place us isolated from the rest of the world by ocean on a single island.

If so, the "new focus" will be on research by ourselves, no wars, no trades.
Wines are for extra commerce to help us in research.

 

[ainwood]

Why Ainwood decided to use Snoopy's Terrain Mod?

Can he hide something that way?

Actually, I use it because I prefer it to the standard ones, and am too lazy to download (on dial-up anyway) new terrain sets.

 

[Ambiorix]

Why are people choosing E-NE for their scout ? E-E onto the mountain would reveal the same tiles and more, no ?

With the ususal lack of time to play, I'm seriously considering a "farmers naval gambit" : no military on land, only at sea. Not that I hope to win such a game - just curious to see how strong my diplomacy skills are.

As part of the guessing game : if the map resembles the real world somehow (big 'if'), I wouldn't be surprised to see a small starting continent, with most room for expansion somewhere off in a distant rainforest.

Btw, can anyone see if we're starting on a BG tile ?

Think I'll go for a curragh first, then maybe scout if the continent is bigger than expected, otherwise another curragh. Science full throttle to Republic.

 

[Darkness]

@Ginger Ale: Please keep in mind that Ainwood usually removes the GH's close to the start, to minimize the influence of very early game GH luck (i.e. a settler in 3800 BC)...