DMI X - A noble way to Deity

Hi guys,

welcome to the anniversary game of the DMI series. I've another rather unusual idea in store. This time we will try to beat Deity. BUT: As I'm struggling on Emperor+ I will give myself and my fellow teammates a grace period. We will start the game at noble difficulty. At 375 AD - which is exactly turn 130 - we will switch to Deity. Easy, isn't it ? But to prevent us just stomping over poor Noble AIs we may not declare war before 1100 AD (turn 170) and must decline any request that wants us to help out in one. If we get DOWed we only are allowed to play a defensive war until the 1100AD mark is there.

DM SG etiquette applies. The use of the BUG Mod (only most recent version 2.30 or from the SVN) is strictly encouraged.

Spoiler DM SG Etiquette :

Alpha: The quality of your report outweighs the quality of your play. We’re here to have fun, and, of course, winning is fun, but losing in style is preferable to a boring win. Remember, your report should be a new reply to alert other players.

Bravo: Reports should be detailed, with plenty of screen shots and player commentary, explanations, musings, etc; an auto-log dump will not suffice. Shots of the F9 screens and overview shots of the empire are nice too, once in a while.

Charlie: Punctuality rocks! “24/48” means post a "got it" within 24 hours of when the last save was posted, and play within 48 hours of that ‘got it.’ Waiting 47 hours to ask for a skip is lame. Punk out two times in a row, and you’ll be dropped from the roster. Skips and swaps are fine, but try to let us know sooner, rather than later.

Delta: Major game decisions (war/peace declarations, religion swaps, city placement, etc) should be arrived at via group consensus.
1. If the team disagrees with you, either argue your case better, or do it their way. Do NOT just blow them off and do it your way because it's your turn.
2. However, if there’s no consensus and you’re up, do it your way and explain why. Conversely, if someone else is up, don't whine when they do it their way.
3. Similarly, overruling techs or city builds is rude and should be done via consensus, barring an emergency.
4. In extraordinary situations, sometimes an opportunity presents itself that the group didn't foresee. If the consequences of it are great, players should stop, and refer the question to the group.

Echo: Being a better player does not give you the right to belittle anyone else or their play. Other people are going to disagree with you on major decisions; get used to the idea, and play nice. If not, take your ball and go home.

Foxtrot: Thread spam is good. Trash talking, poking fun, gentle ribbing, virtual noogies, and generally horsing around are all encouraged, but don’t be rude.

Golf: Automate sparingly.
1. Workers should almost never be automated, except perhaps late-game or building a trade network. However, if you have to, set your game options to “disallow automated worker forest chopping” and “keep previous improvements.”
2. Use of the “Emphasis” buttons is fine, but let the group know and explain your reasoning (specialization is a major game decision). If you prevent growth in a city, let the group know and remind them to take it off. Do NOT let the governor select build orders.
3. Sending units on go-to routes that last beyond your set is acceptable only if they’re heading for a rally point or if you otherwise inform your teammates. NEVER fortify Great People.

Hotel: There is no Hotel.

India: Sign spamming is rude. Signs can be helpful reminders, but too many signs makes them easily ignored. Once a sign is no longer valid, delete it.

The game:

Leader: Isabella of Spain
Map: Continents
Start: Ancient
Options: Standard

Roster spots are available now, players from Deviant Minds or players I've played with get a spot, otherwise it's first come first serve.

Imhotep

 

stop starting games i want to play.

wish i could . . .

 

You can...what hinders you ? ;-)

 

Probably the same thing that hinders most of us: real life. If I didn't have a job, wife, and kid I could play plenty more games...

 

Only too true, Lee ! If I had more time I'd play more MP however...

 

I'm pretty new to SG, but would be happy to play if you're okay with that. Otherwise, no problem.

I'm in the same boat as you, Imhotep, for Emperor+ games.

 

Signing up ...

Come on, it's just 2 hrs a week. What's 2 hrs a week?

 

Sounds deviant, I would be glad to join in.

 

I'm going to second Pholk on this. I already have 2 SG going and that's already over my self imposed limit , otherwise I'd have liked to sign up.

 

Okay, so now we have...

The Roster:

1. Imhotep
2. dazedroyalty
3. GreyFox
4. Strauss
5. open
6. open

Welcome guys ! I'll roll the start once the roster is complete.

Imhotep

 

Oh well, there is a place for a poor soul that can't resist being hulmiliated in Deity ?

BTW Immy , maybe a lake in the BFC would be nice ( or a grassland gems )

 

I'd love to join as well but exams are approaching and I'm already in... enought SGs atm

I'll surely be lurking though. Sounds very interesting

 

I only manage on Monarch (my only emperor win was with Mystyfly and LK in an SG). But I would like to join if there is still a slot open.

As Isabella (was someone calling for 'Spain on a lake'?), we should definitely go for Buddhism and follow the Noble Eightfold Path to Deity

 

Okay, seems we have a roster and a game .

The Roster:

1. Imhotep
2. dazedroyalty
3. GreyFox
4. Strauss
5. The King of Himself aka r_rolo1
6. MyOtherCar


Now to the game:

The settings



The leader



The start




Unfortunately not Spain on a Lake™, but I guess the starting position is good enough. We have lots of forests for chopping, so BW should be a high priority. I'd like to grab a religion or 2 first though. I'd settle in place (or should we move to the plains hill 1 SW ?) and go for Meditation while building a Warrior, then go for Polytheism while building a 2nd one and starting a Settler. Then worker techs along with a worker. After all this is Noble in the beginning and we should use this. But keep in mind that the switch to Deity will drastically tighten maintenance costs - so we should aim for a sustaining economy until then.

Imhotep

P.S.: I'll play the first 20 once we have heard some opionions on the opnening.

 

My first thought was "No way we'll get those religions on deity!" Then... I remembered. I think with the Noble start some early religion is great. I wish we could see more to the East so we knew what was there, but the warrior is a bad spot to help us out. I'd vote for settling on spot as it stands right now.

We're going to grow pretty slowly unless there is an unseen food resource. I think we may want to build a worker and chop out the settler just to accelerate things a little bit.

 

I am not that familiar with noble, but the last couple of noble games I lurked the players couldn't build any improvements, so why would we need workers?

I am not a fan of moving from the starting spot, there's almost always a food resource in the BFC and moving to the plains hill picks up a desert. Move the warrior S onto the hill to as a first step to enlightenment.
And besides, the Spanish people have been wandering for years, so I imagine they're really ready to settle down.

 

Can we go wonder crazy, mr Immy? We have a good shot on Noble + forest start. And it would be a far better move for capitalize the Noble days.

 

Yes, we could . You didn't seriously think myself as Legendary Builder would speak against that ? But we need to be careful. 130 turns is not that much. I'll move the warrior and post a screenie tommorow, but it seems there is consensus yet on settling in place.

Imhotep

 

Normally the map script should ensure a food resource in BFC of starting position. So there shouldn't be any worry there.

I usually wouldn't go settler before worker, but the map does seems to not encourage worker first (ivory gives no help in growing, only adding 1H1C, no F). Hence going warrior and settler first seems fine.

But really, it all depends on the immediate surrounding tiles. Once a pig or rice is revealed, the teching choices and build decision should be changed accordingly.

Going for two early religions is again a move which I would normally not endorse, unless we are hoping to go cultural, or to a lesser extend, diplomatic. I would have gone straight for polytheism.

Going wonder crazy, OTOH, is something I would encouraged. We are not allowed to declare war, so the only adv we can get from the 130 turns of nobility is to tech as fast as possible (which again question the decision to go buddhism first instead of polytheism), and possibly build a couple of early wonders. Is it possible to try for the long-forgotten CS-slingshot in 130 turns ?

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