[BNW] Deity Versus Series - Germany

[beetle]

Deity Versus Series – Bismarck

I am posting a series of six to eight games, all using the same eight civs and the same map script, and taking notes on which civs the computer plays the best. This is the second game in the series, and with this map, you play Bismarck of Germany.

Please be encouraged to share your experience playing this map, but if you post in the first page of this thread, please use the SPOILER tag if you attach a picture, make a comment about your neighbors, nearby natural wonders, locations of ancient ruins, terrain features, luxes, resources, etc.

Before you download and start playing the map, please take a moment to speculate on your initial thoughts and plans for the game. Will you settle in place? Will you try to found a religion? What are your plans for getting the most from the UA, UB, and UU? What Victory Condition will you be aiming for?

After you play the map, please post about which civs lost their capitals to, or were eliminated by, other civs. Which AI thrived and which struggled? Did you feel any pressure from any of the AIs from their winning by SV, CV, or Diplo?

Please post the AI scores at your turn of victory (or defeat). I will be compiling those, to see if any obvious trends emerge.

The suggested VC is Domination, but play as you like, and all VC are enabled.

Spoiler for starting screen shot :

Spoiler for UA, UB, and UU :

Furor: Teutonicus: Upon taking a Barbarian camp, there is a 67% chance a unit will join your side. Pay 25% less for land unit maintenance.

You can build the Hanse which is the unique German Bank replacement. In addition to the usual Bank benefits, a city with a Hanse gets +5% production Production for each Trade Route Germany has with a City-State. Trade routes other players make to a city with a Hanse will generate an extra 1 gold Gold for the city owner, and the trade route owner gains an additional 1 gold Gold for the trade route.

You can train the Panzer which replaces the Tank, but has a higher strength (80 vs. 70), and move 6 (instead of 5).

Spoiler for the map type and other settings :

Standard size, standard speed, standard number of civs and CS, etc. Map type is Continents Plus, so expect the City States to be on the periphery of the continents and on islands. I used Rotate Start Position to pick the best spot and IGE to remove some blocking ice at the poles.

Spoiler for exactly which civs are in the game :

Civs have been chosen because the computer plays them well. Your opponents are Alexander, Attila, Augustus, Dido, Pocatello, Montezuma, and Sejong.

Please note that there are two save files attached to this post. The AI civs in the file with “lite” in its name have each had a settler and worker deleted. As compared to the player, they still start off with an extra warrior, scout, and worker.

This map requires having the DLC map packs.

 

[Grendeldef]

A minor suggestion - any chance of getting the yields visible in the opening SS? It'd be slightly easier to evaluate the dirt without opening the save especially with a phone.

 

[beetle]

@Grendeldef, that is a good suggestion, thank you. I have changed the pic in OP and will show yields in the future.

 

[Grendeldef]

Excellent, thx.

Warrior to the SW Silver but if there's nothing exceptional I'll likely settle one tile to the East.

 

[raider980]

I'll move the warrior to the SW Silver too. But I'm thinking of moving to the Sugar and settling there. Any reason that would be a bad move? I like settling on lux, instant gold, lux when get the tech, and working a plantation lux sucks if you're not on top of it.

 

[Grendeldef]

Nothing wrong with the move itself but I just don't settle on luxes as it's (in some cases) a way to stupidly circumvent the need of an otherwise necessary tech to hook a lux/resource. In general it's a fast way of connecting a lux/resource and protecting it from pillaging for marginal later benefit. Which way is better is situational.
The provisional settling one tile to the East is due to wanting at least 2nd ring hills while keeping the riverside.

 

[raider980]

Spoiler About 115 turns in :

I stole a worker from Monty like T15, man he looked mad! But then he peaced out like 10 turns later. Around T100 Monty started building up troops on my border so I had to give Dido the bank to DoW him. But it was worth it, he hasn't attacked. Its around T115 now and I just got the NC. I was hoping the war would cause Monty to move south so I could DoW Monty and try and take his capital but Dido doesn't seem to be actually bringing troops north to fight.

This is a weird map. I didn't meet anyone but Monty and Dido until after T100. That mountain chain to the south...

Also, are we playing with strategic start or something? Or maybe its just the continents plus script. But for both the Atilla game and this one the luxuries seem weirdly spaced. The closest 3rd lux to the start spot is way far away on both maps. And it seems there aren't enough city spots with good lux distribution as there are normally. The same lux type seems clumped together and then there's a lot of space with nothing. Luckily I've gone Tradition in both games so it hasn't hurt me too badly.

 

[beetle]

I stole a worker from [snip] like T15, man he looked mad! But then he peaced out like 10 turns later.

That is actually pretty typical AI behavior. Often, if you send them a trade route, they will become friendly.

Also, are we playing with strategic start or something?

Nope.

Or maybe its just the continents plus script.

The pattern you describe is what I see more often than not. But it could be the shipping scripts, I am not sure about that.

But for both the Atilla game and this one the luxuries seem weirdly spaced. The closest 3rd lux to the start spot is way far away on both maps. And it seems there aren't enough city spots with good lux distribution as there are normally. The same lux type seems clumped together and then there's a lot of space with nothing. Luckily I've gone Tradition in both games so it hasn't hurt me too badly.

Usually my starting land will have 6+ of one lux, a few (2-3) of a 2nd lux, and maybe, if I am lucky, one copy of one more lux. I try to settle to get a monopoly on the lux that I have most of. Even with only four Tradition cities, that is usually possible. If you leave even one copy outside of your borders, you can count on an AI to settle near you to pick it up.

 

[beetle]

I thought I saw coast in the opening screen shot near the southern Silver, so my Warrior went in that direction. That guess was right, so I gave up the river for a coastal cap.

I did Warrior (instead of Scout) as first build, to take advantage of the UA. That worked pretty well. I ended up with a decent sized early army, but depended on the UA too much and did not war effectively in the beginning. But at least I did not have to build Workers!

The rest of the game I just ended up empire building while only halfheartedly getting ready to war with the remaining neighbor.

As I noted for the Attila game, rating the play of the AI is a work in progress, but for now I am scoring one point for each the following:

1. each civ dominated (and eliminated, hopefully)
2. having tourism influence over all but one civ (or winning by CV)
3. having five SS parts (or winning by SV)
4. being within four votes of WL (or winning by Diplo)
5. being ahead in score by a wide margin (i.e., a few thousand points, maybe twice the score of next highest civ)

I replayed the last ~50 turns to get a (quite late) SV when Augustus won by SV on T348.

For my play of this map, I am awarding Augustus 3 points (two for wiping out Attila and Alexander, a point for being close to SV). He was quite close to getting influence over Dido (which would have been three of the four civs left), but was only middling familiar against Shoshone. Also, no points to anyone for diplomacy or score (since the next two were within a thousand points).

Dido also gets 1 point (for having five SS parts). She did conquer Montezuma, but really that was my doing as much as hers, so out of spite I am vetoing that. If I revisit the scoring maybe I will give her a half point.

 

[raider980]

I got wiped out by Monty around T160 (I installed IGE mod after that and it wiped out all my autosaves so not sure exactly what turn it was). So incomplete results for this one from me. Monty is almost as bad as Shaka, just an endless supply of units.