[GEM] Kaitzilla vs. The World

Kaitzilla

Lord Croissant
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Jun 21, 2008
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America!
I just realized I've been playing this game for 8 years now and not once have I ever written up a game. :blush:
I've done two for the less fun Beyond Earth, but none for the greatest game ever made Civ 4.


Rather than try to replicate writing gems like Don Deity by Snaaty or Seraiel's 9 Replays, I'm going to pick a mod and try to beat it on Deity.
That Mod shall be GIANT EARTH MOD by Genghis Kai (epic name! :cool:)
The first version of the Giant Earth Map took me on average two hours per day for half a year to develop it. Without using any map generators, I first drawn layout of the continents to the ratio that I felt most balanced. This gives me the flexibility to upscale the size of any interested region on the map. Then I adjusted/fine tuned the map, for every tile, so that the map looks realistic even in the local scale – something which usually cannot be achieved by map generators. It took me about 3 months to have a map ready for me to fill in resources.

Another great feature of GEM is that it references real statistic of resources for resource placements. This allowed the map to be less 'biased' towards any regions. However, the time needed to search for the correct statistic for each resource, scale the source into the number of icons on the map, correctly draw the border on the tiff map and lastly placing the sources on the civ map with the correct amount and correct locations was unexpectedly long. It took me another 3 months, almost the same amount of time for drawing the entire map.

After the first version, I received much feedback from this forum and have updated the GEM accordingly. The map you now downloading have been commented, reviewed, tested and balanced. I hope you will enjoy it.

-Genghis Kai

I'll be playing Version 6.4.1 for Beyond the Sword.
It includes something called Better AI mod and RevolutionDCM mod.
My extensive experience with BTS 3.19 will be of little use if things changed too much.

Units get 2:move:? Well, the map is beyond huge!
I'll download the Blue Earth mod by Kai Fiebach (another great name!) to bump up the graphics a bit and get things started.
I don't feel like reading up on all the changes from regular BTS, so I'll just have to pay attention as I play and stay on my toes.

**Edit**
Quick links to the Turnsets I play:
One of the game's rules will be no reloads no matter how badly I screw up. ^_^
You will either see a victory screen or a defeat screen at the end.
Turnset 1 (T0 to T15)
Turnset 2 (T16 to T30)
Turnset 3 (T30 to T38)
Turnset 4 (T39 to T50)
Turnset 5 (T51 to T64)
Financial Ruin Already?
Turnset 6 (T65 to T67)
Turnset 7 (T68 to T80)
Turnset 8 (T81 to T96)
Turnset 9 (T96 to T110) *T100 is 2500BC
Turnset 10 (T110 to T118)
Turnset 11 (T118 to T124)
Turnset 12 (T125 to T131)
Turnset 13 (T132 to T136)
Turnset 14 (T136 to T137)
Turnset 15 (T138 to T144)
Turnset 16 (T145 to T150) *T150 is 2000BC
Turnset 17 (T151 to T153)
Turnset 18 (T154 to T155)
Turnset 19 (T156 to T161)
Turnset 20 (T162 to T163)
Turnset 21 (T164 to T165)
Turnset 22 (T166 to T169)
Turnset 23 (T170 to T176)
Turnset 24 (T177 to T180) [T180 Empire Screenshots and Save included]
Turnset 25 (T181 to T185)
Turnset 26 (T186 to T188)
Turnset 27 (T189 to T192)
Turnset 28 (T193 to T196)
Turnset 29 (T197 to T199)
Turnset 30 (T200 to T202) *T200 is 1500BC
Turnset 31 (T203 to T207)
Turnset 32 (T208 to T210)
Turnset 33 (T211 to T213)
Turnset 34 (T214 to T218)
Turnset 35 (T219 to T220)
Turnset 36 (T221 to T224)
Turnset 37 (T225 to T228)
Turnset 38 (T229 to T232)
Turnset 39 (T233 to T235)
Turnset 40 (T236 to T238)
Turnset 41 (T239 to T240)
Turnset 42 (T241 to T243)
Turnset 43 (T244 to T248)
Turnset 44 (T249 to T250) *T250 is 1000BC [T250 Empire Screenshots and Save included]
Turnset 45 (T251 to T255)
Turnset 46 (T256 to T258)
Turnset 47 (T259 to T260)
Turnset 48 (T261 to T262)
Turnset 49 (T262 to T264)
Turnset 50 (T265 to T266)
Turnset 51 (T267 to T269)
Turnset 52 (T269 to T271)
Turnset 53 (T272)
Turnset 54 (T273)
Turnset 55 (T274 to T275)
Turnset 56 (T276 to T277)
Turnset 57 (T277 to T279)
Turnset 58 (T279 to T280)
Turnset 59 (T280)
Turnset 60 (T281 to T282)
Turnset 61 (T282 to T283)
Story on Hiatus. Will resume on February 11th, 2016.
Turnset 62 (T284)
Turnset 63 (T284 to T285)
Turnset 64 (T286 to T287)
Turnset 65 (T287 to T289)
Turnset 66 (T289 to T290)
Turnset 67 (T291 to T292)
Turnset 68 (T293 to T294)
Turnset 69 (T295)
Turnset 70 (T296 to T297)
Turnset 71 (T298 to T299)
Turnset 72 (T300) *T300 is 500BC
Turnset 73 (T301 to T302)
Turnset 74 (T302 to T304)
Turnset 75 (T305 to T308)
Turnset 76 (T309 to T310)
Turnset 77 (T310 to T311)
Turnset 78 (T312 to T313)
Turnset 79 (T313)
Turnset 80 (T314)
Turnset 81 (T315 to T316)
Turnset 82 (T317 to T319)
Turnset 83 (T320 to T322)
Turnset 84 (T323 to T324)
Turnset 85 (T324 to T326)
Turnset 86 (T327)
Turnset 87 (T328)
Turnset 88 (T329 to T330)
Turnset 89 (T330)
Turnset 90 (T331)
Turnset 91 (T332)
Turnset 92 (T332 to T333)
Turnset 93 (T333)
Turnset 94 (T333 to T334)
Turnset 95 (T334 to T335)
Turnset 96 (T335)
Turnset 97 (T336)
Turnset 98 (T336 to T337)
Turnset 99 (T337 to T338)
Turnset 100 (T338 to T339)
Turnset 101 (T339 to T340)
Turnset 102 (T341)
Turnset 103 (T341 to T342)
Turnset 104 (T342 to T343)
Turnset 105 (T344)
Turnset 106 (T344 Continued)
Turnset 107 (T345)
Turnset 108 (T345 Continued)
Turnset 109 (T346)
Turnset 110 (T346 to T347)
Turnset 111 (T347 Continued)
Turnset 112 (T348)
Turnset 113 (T348 Continued)
Turnset 114 (T349)

1AD Reached! :dance: [T350 Save included]
 



I'll be playing at 1280x1024 resolution so I can post full sized screenshots (~original at the end of a photobucket pic) that fit inside posts.
If they are too large, let me know and I can easily shrink the pics down a bit.

The scenario will be GiantEarthMap Ancient Resource because I want to start in 4000BC.
Spoiler :

The description reads:
Map Size: Giant
This is a giant size world map (210*90) with Eurasia upscaled.
The resources are allocated based on ancient (pre 1500AD) setting.
i.e. there will be no horse, wheat, and many other in the new world.
210 tiles wide by 90 tiles tall is Enormous!
A Huge map in Beyond the Sword goes all the way up to 152*96 on Terra, so this one will be 50% wider.
In addition, Europe+Asia will be bigger than normal and the Pacific Ocean smaller to compensate, so this will be like a Huge+ map.

There are 36 civs in play, so I will have to choose one.
Spoiler :

The choices are:
American (Washington)
Arabian (Saladin)
Aztec (Montezuma)
Babylonian (Hammurabi)
Hungarian (Justinian)
Carthaginian (Hannibal)
Australian (Lincoln)
Chinese (Qin)
Baiyue (Kublai Khan)
Egyptian (Ramesses)
English (Elizabeth)
Ethiopian (Zara)
French (Louis)
German (Frederick)
Greek (Pericles)
Polish (Charlemagne)
Incan (Huayna Capac)
Indian (Asoka)
Mughal (Suleiman)
Japan (Tokugawa)
Khmer (Suryavarman)
Korea (Wang Kon)
Malinese (Mansa)
Mayan (Pacal)
Mongolian (Genghis Khan)
Native American (Sitting Bull)
Dutch (Willem)
Turkish (Mehmed)
Persian (Cyrus)
Brazilian (Joao)
Roman (Julius)
Russian (Peter)
Spanish (Isabella)
Israeli (Gilgamesh)
Scandanavian (Ragnar)
Zulu (Shaka)

I don't see a Random selection anywhere, so I'll just roll a virtual 36 sided die.
http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/

And the Result is...
......
28!

That means um...
I'll play the Turkish Empire, led by Mehmed :)
 
Some typical names for good luck.


Spoiler :

Settings will be:
Giant Earth Map mod v6.4.1
Deity Difficulty
Marathon Speed (1500 turns)
Ancient Start
Temperate
Medium Seas
Mehmed - Turkish Empire
And here is the start:



Wet wheat, marble, forest tundra silver, hill sheep, 2 flood plains, and silk. :)
Settle on top of the marble?
Move warrior 1N1W to check for more flood plains, and then settle in place?

There are a few things to consider.
My warrior does indeed have 2:move: instead of 1, so he could explore to the western hill.
Spoiler :





The scoreboard indicates there are 7204 land tiles in the game.
There are 210x90=18900 total tiles, so the world is 38% land and 62% water.
With 36 civs, each civ needs to scout out about 200 tiles to choke out barbs.
I wonder how the barbs are on this map? :hmm:

The loading screen hint indicates the mod contains something called "stability".
Run civics to match your religion?
Sounds like fun!

An info screen for something called RevolutionDCM appeared.
It said the following things were enabled:
DCM Options:
Ranged Bombardment
Opportunity Fire
Air Bombing
Fighter Engage
Naval Bombardment

IDW Options:
IDW Barbarian Influence
IDW Naval Influence

Inquisitions Options:
Inquisitions Enabled

Religion Options:
Choose Religions

Super Spies Options:
Super Spies Enabled
Bribe Mission
Assassinate Mission

Reminds me of the Super Subs option on Axis and Allies. :lol:
I'll need to keep in mind that spies and air power probably got buffed.
There will also be new concepts to absorb such as bombardment , barb/naval influence, inquisitions, and stability.
The Better AI mod will also mean stronger Deity AI and less stupid behavior. :sad:

**Edit**
I found some of the settings for RevolutionDCM using ALT+CTRL+O.
Giant Earth Map Mod uses BUG Mod too.
Spoiler :

Starting save attached.
 

Attachments

  • Mehmed The Invincible BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave
    213.1 KB · Views: 262
Any particular victory condition someone wants me to pursue?
I'd be up for trying anything except a time victory.

Conquest, Domination, Religious, Diplomatic, Cultural, Espionage, Space. :crazyeye:

I assume Mehmed is in the middle east.
It's going to be a bit rough with the flat land and being surrounded by strong empires.

Mehmed's civ traits are:
The Wheel and Agriculture

Expansive - +2:health: per city
Double production speed of Granary and Harbor
+25% bonus for production of Workers
Organized - -50% Civic Upkeep Costs
Double production speed of Lighthouse, Factory and Courthouse

Janissary - Musketman with +25% vs. Archery, Mounted, and Melee units
Hammam - Aqueduct with an extra +2 :)
 
Oh wow this seems really promising. :goodjob:
I love absurdly enormous maps, pity my pc can't run 'em as big as I'd like.
Revolutions is a fantastic modcomp! Though I've no idea how its parameters have been set in the GEM mod, so I can't really give suggestions on how much you'll be able to expand before rebels will start popping up everywhere.
Also, I can't seem to find the REV button in your screenshots, so I've no idea where you'd be able to check how your stability is evolving.
 
Oh wow this seems really promising. :goodjob:
I love absurdly enormous maps, pity my pc can't run 'em as big as I'd like.
Revolutions is a fantastic modcomp! Though I've no idea how its parameters have been set in the GEM mod, so I can't really give suggestions on how much you'll be able to expand before rebels will start popping up everywhere.
Also, I can't seem to find the REV button in your screenshots, so I've no idea where you'd be able to check how your stability is evolving.

Rebels and stability! :crazyeye:
Maybe this REV button appears once I've settled my capital?
I'll keep an eye out for it, thanks Noyyau!

**Edit**
Looks like CNTRL+SHIFT+Q brings up the RevolutionDCM popup from the start hmm.
It doesn't bring up any real options except autoplay(CNTRL+SHIFT+X), new leader(CNTRL+SHIFT+L), and new civ(CNTRL+SHIFT+P)
At the top it says None under Revolutions Options:
Hmm...


I went ahead and took 30 minutes to look over the new game.
There are a few profound differences that Giant Earth Mod has over Huge BTS maps that I've spotted so far.
I'll list any that I find here for deity marathon speed.


GIANT EARTH MOD CHANGES FROM BTS
1) Techs cost around 108% more :science:!
2) Settlers (300:hammers:) and buildings cost the same, but units are 50% cheaper!
So that 40:hammers: swordsman on normal speed BTS costs 80:hammers: on marathon speed BTS and costs 60:hammers: on marathon speed in Giant Earth Mod.
3) Flood Plains give 2:food: instead of 3:food:
4) 1:move: units like Warriors have 2:move: and 2:move: units like Chariots and Workboats have 3:move:
5) Harbors give +1:gold: on water tiles.
6) Engineering unlocks the Levee city improvement. :eek:
7) Theology unlocks the Inquisitor unit. Costs double :hammers: of a Missionary, but will remove all non-state religions from a city.
8) Nationalism allows 8 drafts per turn instead of 5. Representation gives +3:) in 8 cities.
9) There is a new Victory Condition called Religious (80% of Religion Influence). No idea what that means :run:
10) All water tiles naturally have +1:hammers: and -1:gold:
11) Farms on corn and wheat give an extra +1:food: for some reason. A farm on rice gives +2 more food than normal.
12) ALL UNIT COSTS ARE DOUBLED.
Also, the handicap modifier bonus is now a crippling handicap modifier penalty(+30% costs).
Have fun paying 2.6:gold: per unit each turn instead of 1:gold: Huhuhu
13) Markets give +1 trade routes. Currency does not give +1 trade routes.
14) Goody Huts and Random Events are enabled!
15) Number of Cities Maintenance Costs are only 75% those of a Huge map.
16) All military units that defend in a city against a barbarian get a new additional bonus City Barbarian Defense +25%
17) Whip anger only lasts 20 turns, not the usual 30. :whipped:
18) Longbows now have 5:strength: instead of 6.
19) Cyrus, Darius, Mao, Suleiman, Suryavarmen, and Wang Kon need to be Pleased before they will sign Open Borders.
20) Each scientist specialist now gives +4:science: and +1:hammers:
Spy specialist gives an extra +1 science beaker.
Merchant specialist gives an extra +1 food.
Engineer specialist gives an extra +2 science beakers.
21) A settled Great General now gives +4xp, not +2.

Teching will take ages and the map will literally crawl with units.
The 2:move: for Axes/Swords/Mace/Muskets/Rifles is perhaps the biggest change of all.
Enemy stacks of doom and barbs will simply race around an under defended empire, laying waste to all.
Barb attacks from fog won't be limited to panthers and wolves (now 3:move:) anymore. Lions and 2:move:bear cavalry will be a thing.
My mind is flinching from the possible wars this mod will generate on Deity/Marathon.
 
Here is the first scouting result.
There is a another wet floodplain wheat, oasis, and wine to the west of my settler. :)



If the flood plains were working normally I'd certainly consider settling 1W, but with the +25%:hammers: to worker the marble looks best.
The city will have 2:hammers: and be able to work the sheep hill for the bonus to get a Worker(90:hammers:) in 15 turns instead of 23 turns settling on flood plains.

Where to send the Warrior is an important question since 2:move:barbs will likely eat it as soon as they begin spawning.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/tech_research.php
I get a research bonus of Floor(0.3*x/36)*100 percent where x represents each civ that knows the tech I'm researching.
So if I know 1 civ that has Mining, I get 0% research bonus for Mining.
If I know 6 civs that have Mining, I get 5% research bonus for Mining.

The nearby civs will likely be these 6 if I start in the northern Middle East:
American (Washington)
Arabian (Saladin)
Aztec (Montezuma)
Babylonian (Hammurabi)
Hungarian (Justinian)
Carthaginian (Hannibal)
Australian (Lincoln)
Chinese (Qin)
Baiyue (Kublai Khan)
Egyptian (Ramesses)
English (Elizabeth)
Ethiopian (Zara)
French (Louis)
German (Frederick)
Greek (Pericles)
Polish (Charlemagne)
Incan (Huayna Capac)
Indian (Asoka)
Mughal (Suleiman)
Japan (Tokugawa)
Khmer (Suryavarman)
Korea (Wang Kon)
Malinese (Mansa)
Mayan (Pacal)
Mongolian (Genghis Khan)
Native American (Sitting Bull)
Dutch (Willem)
Turkish (Mehmed)
Persian (Cyrus)
Brazilian (Joao)
Roman (Julius)
Russian (Peter)
Spanish (Isabella)
Israeli (Gilgamesh)
Scandanavian (Ragnar)
Zulu (Shaka)
Israel and Babylon and Persia will be the main troublemakers I'd say.
If all 3 get their UU, any axes I got will have big trouble.
Egypt with War Chariots would also be a pain.

If I remember my geography right, I can send my warrior east to meet Asian civs.
I can send it northeast to Georgia, northwest to Ukraine, then walk west into Europe to meet European civs.
I can send it southwest across Sinai Peninsula past Egypt hopefully before borders pop to meet African civs such as Mansa.
Which way should I send it? :hammer2:
It still seems unreal that they only cost 22:hammers: in marathon Giant Earth Mod.

I'm leaning towards scouting Asia first before too many barbs spawn.
Ramesses shouldn't be too hard to get open borders eventually.
Europe will send scouts and should be barb free for a 2nd warrior scout.

Tech choices are very very important with techs costing +108% more :science:.
Pottery for 1/2 price Granaries(90:hammers:) and cottages.
Animal Husbandry for Sheep improvement and possibly horses for Chariots.
Mining+Bronze Working for Slavery, chopping and mining silver for +1:), and maybe copper for Axes.

I'm not sure if I can click on the tech bar at the top of the screen and avoid choosing a tech for 5 turns with this mod, so I'll just pick a tech on Turn 0.
 
Last edited:
Subbing, this looks really cool. I would recommend putting the pictures in a spoiler tag; they're larger than my screen.
 
Turnset 1 (T0 to T15)

T0 - Founded my capital "Invincible City" on the marble as planned.
Worker will take 15 turns thanks to +25%:hammers: for workers.
Spoiler :

T1 - Discovered lake tiles have +1:hammers: in this mod :eek:
Demographics screen indicates the weakest civ has 2000 soldiers compared to my 6000 soldiers.
Did the mapmaker give some Deity civs a scout to start with only?
What about only 1 city instead of 2? :D
1 city and weak defenders would be a huge help for me.
Spoiler :



T6 - Goody Hut spotted! :dance:
Didn't think this mod would have any, but there it is. Hopefully something good.
Spoiler :

T7 - Popped 144:gold:, very nice.
T8 - Annnnnnnnnnnnd there's my worst nightmare. A 3:strength: and 2:move: Bear.
RIP Warrior
Spoiler :

T9 - A miracle! :eek:
Rather than attack with a 90.1% chance to win, the bear moved 1S onto a hill.
Only a codegod like DanF could tell you what my odds were for that stroke of luck.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=324961
I retreated my Warrior to the Southwest and named him Jesus because there is no way he should have survived.
Spoiler :



T11 - Jesus the Warrior defeated a Lion at 90% odds.
Decided to retreat rather than sneak past a bear and probably get chased to certain death with 1.7hp.
Spoiler :

T15 - Borders popped in capital. Worker produced.
Would have had a sheep if I had settled in place instead of marble. :hmm:

Demographics remain quite interesting.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/demographics.php
Some horrible civ still only has 2000 soldiers. :lol:
Knowing Hunting is 2000 soldiers.
Mining is 2000 soldiers.
Archery is 6000 soldiers.
1 Warrior is 1000 soldiers.
Sooooo, 2 warriors and no techs? No military at all and only Hunting tech? What did the mapmaker/modmaker do to these Deity AI?
Spoiler :


 
Turnset 2 (T16-T30)

T18 - Jesus the Warrior scooted through to the east without seeing the bear.
Discovered a nice plains hill city spot with gold, stone, dye, pigs, and some weird 3:food: tundra hill all in the big fat cross.
He kept advancing east sticking to hilltops behind a river for 50% defensive bonus.
Spoiler :

T19 - The 2:move: bear is back and forcing me to run east.
Spoiler :

T20 - Jesus the Warrior defeated a Lion crossing the river with 74.9% odds of victory.
Rather than stay still and heal and possibly get wrecked by that bear, I advanced 1 east.
Oh! Another hut :D
Now comes a huge decision.
Staying still has a good chance of surviving with the river proving some protection against attack from the south and the tiles to the west being safe since I moved 1E already.
If I grab the hut on the flat land, I'll probably die to something.
If I move 1E to the hill for better defenses, I'll be exposed to 5 more unexplored tiles to the east where 2:move: animals can attack from.
If I stay still and die, I'll kick myself hard for missing the chance to just take the hut.
..
........
I decided to stay still, promote to Woodsman I to heal to 1.7hp rather than Combat I, and then start praying. :please:
Spoiler :





T21 - Still Alive!
Let's see the juicy rewards. Or maybe it spawns some barbs? :lol:
...
OMG Free Tech!
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY (1170:science:) :dance: :band:
I think it was 10% chance to get a Free Tech and then it picked between Fishing, Hunting, Mysticism, Mining, Pottery, and Animal Husbandry.
Or maybe 16.67% chance for free tech if it is too early to spawn real barbs from a hut?
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7613638&postcount=4
........
Lots of horses on the map. If I had settled in place, one would have been in my capital. :wallbash:
I'll have to put a 2nd city (300:hammers:) to acquire it quickly.

Also, a purple civ was spotted to the southeast of my capital using zoomed out culture view.
I thought Babylon was pinkish?
Will send my 2nd warrior down to investigate.
Spoiler :







T24 - Jesus the Warrior killed a Lion at 97.4% odds while healing on a forest hilltop.
With only 1.5hp and YET ANOTHER 2:move: bear threatening him, he moved northwest and had to pray for the best again.
Retreating south to heal away from the forests probably would have been more dangerous.
Spoiler :



T26 - Produced my 1st military unit of a hopefully long game.
Will send him south to check on that AI.
Spoiler :

T28 - Met my 1st AI Babur of the Mughal Empire (Suleiman).
He wasn't on my initial list of 6AI neighbors I expected to meet since I didn't know what a Mughal Empire was or where it was historically.
Looking at the scoreboard, I can't tell how many cities he has.
Spoiler :

T29 - The city is Babur's capital Lahore.
It is defended by 3 warriors. :D
One of them just arrived from the forested hilltop my 2nd warrior is standing on.
Now I really wish I had settled in place for a chariot rush.
T30 - Jesus the Warrior met Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire.
A Mughal worker has appeared on the sheep hilltop to mine it.
Spoiler :




Now comes the option for the game's 1st declaration of war!!!
If I steal the Worker(90:hammers:) it will help me and hurt Babur. He is much weaker than a Deity AI normally is.
At Size 1, he probably had to build it just like me.
With 25% hilltop defense and 25% crossing river defense, Babur(Suleiman) should only have iBaseAttackOddsChange of 2(medium courage) so he probably won't suicide rush me with a Warrior.
His 3rd warrior might be 2N, 1E2N, 1E1E, or 1E of his capital Lahore, or out of attack range too.
My Warrior and captured Worker can retreat 1W to the even more defensive forest hilltop.

There are multiple dangers doing this.
1) It will take me 4 turns to complete my 3rd warrior to guard my capital, and with 2:move: Warriors I can lose the game if a wandering Babur Warrior comes racing in from the east or especially southwest.
2) Turning off a war against a Deity AI is almost impossible without giving up a city or tech unless you get a lot of war success. (more than stealing 1 Worker)
They can build units 40% cheaper than me and can out produce me all things being equal. (i.e. a Warrior costs the Deity AI 13 or 14 hammers to build instead of 22)
Babur can just stack up Warriors in his capital and make it really hard to wipe him out even with Chariots.
3) Unless I choke Babur's capital with Warriors, he can tech Bronze Working or Animal Husbandry before my 2nd city gets established and win the war with superior units if horse/copper is in his capital.
4) I don't know how good the Better AI mod is or what it changed.
5) Archery and Archers is another option for Babur that would prevent him from being wiped out.
6) Barb troubles become more likely if I'm focused on AI war.
7) If Babur manages Alphabet(no way), he can bribe all kinds of AI to war against me.

All in all, I'd say the rewards and risk are about equal.
I know I can get Chariots with a 2nd city without building any roads.
Success would seriously hurt Babur since there are no floodplains in this game.
If I wait 1 or 2 turns for my capital Warrior to be more complete to avoid Danger #1, Babur might guard his Worker with a Warrior.

I'm leaning towards war because Deity isn't for the faint of heart.
 
They look great. I think the size you have them ones at now is fine (at least it is for me). Still loving the story.
Also 90.1% against you and you didn't die! I feel like you're getting the exact opposite of what I'm getting for luck.
 
Haha yeah, 90% odds for me means a dead attacker half the time!
I'm rooting for Jesus the lucky Warrior :)

The 3:food: tundra hill I think might have a Flood Plains feature on it? The 2:commerce: seem to corroborate this. Scenario maker's oversight?

I would've settled in place, simply because it bothers me to settle on resources... though I have to ask: does this mod give to the city tile the yield equivalent of the improved resource? (I know RFC does that, but AND does not).

The fantastic descriptions of the various features and details of your game are making me want to try this mod, and that's not a good thing, I really don't have enough free time for that!

Finally, I say go to war, steal the Worker and conquer Lahore ASAP!
I perfectly agree, Deity isn't for the faint of heart, and you should stomp on such a close and weak neighbour with all possible haste.
 
Haha yeah, 90% odds for me means a dead attacker half the time!
I'm rooting for Jesus the lucky Warrior :)

The 3:food: tundra hill I think might have a Flood Plains feature on it? The 2:commerce: seem to corroborate this. Scenario maker's oversight?

I would've settled in place, simply because it bothers me to settle on resources... though I have to ask: does this mod give to the city tile the yield equivalent of the improved resource? (I know RFC does that, but AND does not).

The fantastic descriptions of the various features and details of your game are making me want to try this mod, and that's not a good thing, I really don't have enough free time for that!

Finally, I say go to war, steal the Worker and conquer Lahore ASAP!
I perfectly agree, Deity isn't for the faint of heart, and you should stomp on such a close and weak neighbour with all possible haste.

Ya, seems to be a flood plain tundra.

The city tile in Giant Earth Mod seems the same as in regular Beyond the Sword gameplay to me.
So settling on top of plains marble just gives +1:hammers:

War it is! :hammer:
 
Turnset 3 (T30-T38)

T30 - DOW'd Babur of Mughal and stole a Worker.
Put all +4:espionage: per turn onto Babur so I can see his power ratio and demographics later.
Spoiler :

T31 - Jesus the Warrior defeated a Lion at 99% odds. :)
Warrior+Worker retreated 1W to the forest hilltop without any problems.
Spoiler :



T32 - There are now 4 Warriors in Lahore and a 5th Warrior to the southwest. :eek:
Instead of fortifying on the forest hilltop like I planned, will retreat with the Worker since it is too dangerous to stay.
Not like there is any Worker to shoo away from Lahore's sheep or wheat.
Spoiler :

T34 - Breathed a sigh of relief as my 3rd Warrior appeared in Invincible City.
Jesus the Warrior is now face to face with his nemesis the Bear. :devil:
There will be no one to stop the bear this time.
Spoiler :

T35 - Jesus the Warrior defeated the bear at 76.9% odds. :banana:
Promoted to Woodsman II for double move speed in forests and 4:strength: while inside them.
Intruder Alert!!! :bounce:
As feared, a Mughal Warrior has appeared from the southwest to cause trouble.
Hopefully he will kill himself against my 2.5:strength: Warrior or 3:strength: capital Warrior.
There is also a 1.1hp Lion that might menace him, but it probably won't do much damage since Deity AI get a huge bonus vs. Animals. (80%?)
Spoiler :



T37 - Jesus the Warrior met Suryavarmen of the Khmer Empire.
Surya is one of least my least favorite AI because his empire always gets so big.
He also always stabs me in the back too, so I've learned to keep both eyes on that reptilian visage.

That stupid Mughal Warrior has placed himself in the perfect position to cause me maximum pain. :cry:
The wimply Lion gave him a Combat 1 bonus, so my warriors only have a 32% chance to win instead of 50%!

7:food: flood plains wheat is difficult to describe how important it is.
It is a +5:food: surplus and is instrumental in getting a Settler out quickly.
Letting it be pillaged will instantly cost me 19 worker turns and eventually cost me about 50:food:.
Growing from Size 1 takes 66:food:, Size 2 takes 72:food:, Size 3 takes 78:food: etc. so it's like losing a population. :mad:
The Advanced AI Mod is really shining with the Warrior placing himself in the perfect spot for a pillage just like a human.
I thought for sure Babur would move the Warrior onto the wheat so I could attack twice from my capital, but just outside my borders means I need to put both Warriors on the wheat to defend.
When Babur attacks and beats my Warrior, he will get 3xp and a 2nd promotion. Hmm
**Edit**
Phew! Testing indicates the AI can't promote the same turn they get a victory and heal half hp.
Not sure why I thought that might happen.
So, the main danger is revealed with holding down shift and seeing the combat odds breakdown.
3.9% chance my Warrior won't do any damage to Babur's Warrior when it attacks. (2hp, disaster, retreat Warrior to capital, move Wheat to plains hill next turn to get another Warrior in 2 turns instead of 3, allow Babur to pillage Floodplain Wheat)
9.3% chance my Warrior will hit Babur's Warrior 1 time before dying. (1.6, bad, retreat to capital)
13.3% chance my Warrior will hit Babur's Warrior 2 times before dying. (1.2hp, ok, attack with 2nd Warrior and hopefully kill)
About 13.4% chance the Babur Warrior will be lucky enough that I will have to let the Wheat go.
Spoiler :





T38 - And it's gone! Babur's Warrior ignored my 2 Warriors and retreated out of sight ^.^
Also, Babur is willing to sign a Cease Fire.
DONE! WAR IS OVER :D
Thanks for the free Worker mwahahahaha
First time I've ever seen a Deity AI talk peace after only 1 stolen Worker, but the lack of Archers/Archery and a 2nd city changed the calculation I guess.
Spoiler :


 
Turnset 4 (T39-T50)

T40 - Fortifying a Warrior on the Wheat to reach 2.5:strength: in 5 turns to help prevent pillaging in the future.
Walking other Warrior back to Lahore to check on it for more Workers. (I don't think I want to press my luck with another war so soon, but I just have to go look)

Jesus the Warrior is now facing a dilemma.
He is Woodsman II and there are only forest in the north.
Should he go Northwest for Europe or Northeast for Russia and Asia?
I'm starting to think Northwest for Europe. I've met 1 Middle East civ and 2 Asian civs and strangely no others. :hmm:

Almost have enough :espionage: on Babur to see his power rating and demographics.

Suryavarmen has Bronze Working already (from a goody hut?) and is running Slavery. :mad:
Spoiler :





T41 - The :espionage: efforts reveal Babur has a power rating with me of 0.619 on the scoreboard.
I only have 62% of his power, but the stolen Worker will start tilting things my way.

Sent Jesus the Warrior a bit north then west through the forests towards Europe.
*By Turn 50 he mowed through 3 Wolfs and 2 Lions :ar15:
Sadly you can't earn more than 5xp killing animals. :cry:
Spoiler :

T42 - Babur has 5 Warriors. 3 in Lahore and 2 roaming around. No Worker spotted.
Spoiler :

T46 - Someone discovered a religion and I was required to pick one of the 7 on a menu. :coffee:
Some civ I haven't met then discovered Buddhism.
On the religion screen it mentions Influence 2%, so I need to keep any civ from getting 80% influence in their religion somehow or they'll win a Giant Earth Mod Religious Victory.
Spoiler :



T47 - Met my 4th civ by exploring west of my capital, one Saladin of the Arabian Empire.
Spoiler :

T49 - Found the Mediterranean Sea to the west!
The sea tiles much like the lake tiles all have +1:hammers:
My capital is roughly where Baghdad is in real life.
Not sure where the mapmaker put Babylon. :confused:

T50 - Discovered Mining! :dance:
Will do Bronze Working next to unlock silver and the better Axeman/Spear defenders.
Horses are so common on this map everyone will have Chariots eventually.
Also, there is nothing but endless land tiles north of my capital.
Barbs from the north will eventually become a major headache unless the mapmaker toned them down somehow or the AI's can crowd them with units.

Thank goodness my civilization started with Agriculture!
Teching is so slow, I'd go crazy without a food tech at the beginning.

Went ahead and started a Settler once I reached 3 population.
When you produce +17:hammers: per turn for a Settler (18 turns to make), why spend 7 turns growing to 4 population to get +19:hammers: per turn? (16 turns to make Settler)
Gonna put the 2nd city to the south on a plains hill.
It is a perfect Settler pump and I'd rather wait 20 more turns to get a horse city with more protection and 2 cities to spam chariots instead of just 1.

Hopefully Babur will be left in the dust trying to make a Worker at 2 pop on unimproved tiles while I crank out Settlers at 3 pop working monster tiles. :)
Spoiler :






 
I'm glad my suggestion worked out in your favor in the end :)

I hope we'll reach Axemen before Babur, that'll be the moment to immediately re-DoW and conquer Lahore for good. Axes vs Warriors? Bwahahaha! :evil:
 
I'm glad my suggestion worked out in your favor in the end :)

I hope we'll reach Axemen before Babur, that'll be the moment to immediately re-DoW and conquer Lahore for good. Axes vs Warriors? Bwahahaha! :evil:

Yes, Axes vs. Warriors are hilarious. :D
Will have to see if I'm fast enough to DOW again before the defenses inevitably get upgraded.


Giant Earth Map Mod definitely seems to contain elements of the Bug Mod I've noticed.
The little buttons at the bottom of the screen and the ALT+CNTRL+O menu seem very familiar.
It is missing the mouse tooltip when hovering over tiles that let me know if some turns have been put into a farm or mine, but I can't expect this mod to be the same as the BUFFY hall of fame mod.

In regular v3.19 Civ 4:Beyond the Sword, overflow :hammers: greater than the build size vanished. :cry:
So a 30:hammers: Warrior could only have a maximum production overflow of 30:hammers: carry over to the next build. The rest vanished.
In Bug Mod, this Firaxis coding error was removed and replaced with the extra :hammers: overflow beyond build size turning into :gold:.
This meant a 90/30:hammers: Warrior Mathematics boosted double-forest-chop would carry over 30:hammers: to the next build and put 30:gold: into the bank.
I'll need to test this in my game to see if Giant Earth Map Mod gives :gold: for excess :hammers: overflow or not because it might be one of the only ways to generate big amounts of gold in the Ancient Era before Currency. :hmm:
 
Turnset 5 (T51-T64)

T51 - "Most Powerful Civ" notice came up.
Babur is #1 and my civ is #5.
Pretty impressive considering there are 36 civilizations.
Spoiler :

T52 - Jesus the Warrior killed another Wolf.
His trek westward towards Europe is slow but seemingly unstoppable.
He later mowed down a Lion and another Wolf. :)

My exploration Warrior found a good city spot near Babur on top of some Incense.
It could have 3 sources of wet Wheat and horses once the forest is chopped.
Spoiler :

T53 - Scouting southwest, I met my 5th civ of the game Hammurabi of the Babylon Empire.
I also met Cyrus of the Persian Empire.
Cyrus is -1 relations with me since I DOW'd his friend Babur whom he was Pleased with at the time.

I am not in the Middle East at all! I'm more like in Kazakhstan! :eek2:
Very funny Mr. Mapmaker. :goodjob:

Ancient Iraq has ridiculous food.
Check out the 8:food: farmed Wheat in the bottom left corner. :drool:
My floodplain Wheat only produces 7:food:, but I guess it's not two tiles combined (is that what the mapmaker did?) like Floodplain/plain. :dunno:
Spoiler :





T54 - No barb Warriors/Archers spotted yet and no Babur Workers to steal.
Started moving my Warrior guarding my Wheat tile to explore a tiny bit and then check on Babur and make the area to the south safe for my Settler eventually.

T56 - Met Asoka of the Indian Empire exploring to the Southeast past Babur.
Spoiler :

T58 - Met David of the Israeli Empire (Gilgamesh) exploring west of Babylon.
Spoiler :

T59 - Babur's capital Lahore is almost fully explored now.
Other than some Spices there are no good tiles in the inner ring, so the city will be pretty useless to me until a Monument can be constructed and 30:culture: can be accumulated. :sad:
Spoiler :

T61 - Met my 9th civ Louis XIV of the French Empire near Israel.
Louis and Ramesses tend to be the wonder spammers of any game they are in.
Spoiler :

T62 - Forested gems spotted up north along with Babur's Warrior now Combat II.
I can see a great spot to chop The Great Wall to keep barbs from invading my empire or The Pyramids.
Spoiler :

T64 - The game's 2nd religion was discovered by Saladin. I chose for it to be Islam.
Spoiler :

Settler produced!
My gold deficit at 100%:science: slider immediately jumped from -2 to -5gpt.
OMG WHAT? :mad:
I immediately brought up the financial advisor to see what happened since all I did was produce a Settler unit.
Spoiler :

OMG! :eek:
I'm paying 2:gold: in Unit Costs for each unit instead of 1:gold:
This...
completely changes the game I'm playing...
 
**Takes a big Breath**

One of the big reasons warmongers struggle so much on Deity is because they don't carefully consider financial costs before obtaining Currency.
Capture and keep a bunch of crappy cities, or make a giant amount of units, and you will quickly find your research skidding to a halt if you don't plan ahead.
Then you fall behind the other AI in tech and get rolled over or get so frustrated you quit.

The 2 main costs are maintenance for your units and maintenance for your cities.
This guide explains Unit Maintenance costs very well:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/unit_maintenance.php

Spoiler :
How to read the in-game information
Unit maintenance is divided in two sections, unit costs and unit supply. Both of these costs are mentioned in the financial adviser (F2). You can mouse over these sections and get some additional information.

The unit cost section has the following mouse over information (the numbers are just an example):

10: Unit cost for 10 units (free support for 14)
15: Military unit cost for 15 units (free support for 3)
-13: handicap cost

The first line means that your empire has 24 units. You only have to pay maintenance for 10 of them as you have a free support of 14 units. The second line shows that your empire has 18 military units (every unit except settlers, workers and missionaries). You only have to pay maintenance for 15 of them as you have a free support of 3 units. This military unit cost is usually 0 and will only have a positive number when you're running the pacifism civic. The last line is a discount and is dependent on the difficulty level of the game (it is 0 for deity level).

The unit supply section has the following mouse over information (again the numbers are just an example):

3: away supply for 7 units (free support for 4)

This means that your empire has 11 units outside its cultural borders. You only have to pay supply costs for 7 of them as you have a free supply support for 4 units. These 7 units have a supply cost of 7/2=3 rounded down. Note that also non-military units like settlers, workers and missionaries have supply costs.

How does the game calculate the free unit support and the handicap cost?
Some of you might have noticed that the amount of free support increases as you play the game. This is true for the free support in the unit cost section, but not the free support in the unit supply section. The free support in the unit supply section is always 4.

However, the free support in the unit cost section is dependent on the total size of your population (the sum of all of your city sizes) and the difficulty level. If we name the size of your population N and the difficulty level bonus D then the free support for units is [0.24 * N] + D. This difficulty level bonus is 5 at Deity, 6 at Immortal, 7 at Emperor, 8 at Monarch, 10 at Prince, 12 at Noble, 16 at Warlord, 22 at Chieftain and finally 28 at Settler level.
The vassalage civic provides you with an additional free unit support which is again dependent on your population size: [0.1 * N] + 5.

The free support in the military unit section is also dependent on the size of your population: [0.12 * N] + 2.

All of these numbers are rounded down.

The handicap cost is a percentage of the total unit cost (unit cost + military unit cost) which is dependent on the difficulty level. The percentage is 0 at Deity, 10 at Immortal, 20 at Emperor, 30 at Monarch, 40 at Prince, 50 at Noble, 60 at Warlord, 70 at Chieftain and finally 80 at Settler level. This number is rounded up.

An example:

10: Unit cost for 10 units (free support for 14)
15: Military unit cost for 15 units (free support for 3)
-13: handicap cost

These are the unit costs from an empire with a size 5, 3 and 2 city. So the total population size is 10. It is a game at Noble difficulty level, so the difficulty level bonus is 12. In this game the vassalage civic that grants additional free support is not used. So the free support is 0.24 * 10 + 12 = 14 (rounded down).

In this game, the pacifism civic is used and we thus have to pay military unit costs. The free support is 0.12 * 10 + 2 = 3 (rounded down).

As this is a game at Noble difficulty level, the handicap costs are 50% of 25 = 13 (rounded up).

Strategic Consequences
The unit cost limits fast expansion.

The free unit support can take a large chunk out of your unit maintenance cost and should thus be maximized. There is only one real way to do that and that is to increase your population before you create a lot of units. To support all the units needed for a fast expansion a large population size is needed, but that is against the nature of fast expansion. If you neglect you defenses in order to save yourself from high unit maintenance costs, then you risk your cities being taken over by barbarians or your settlers eaten by lions.

Early exploration/attack with many units is very expensive.

The free support cost for unit supply is only 4. This means that if 6 or more units are not within your cultural borders (including workers, settlers and missionaries), then you will start to pay unit supply costs for those units. As money is scarce in the beginning of the game, this upkeep can be too much.

An empire with large cities can easily support a sizable army without any unit maintenance cost.

As a rule of thumb, you can say that 4 units of population supply 1 unit for free (not exact, but close enough). So if your cities are size 8 on average, then each city can support 2 units free of charge. If your cities are size 16 on average then each city can support 4 units free of charge.

This doesn't mean that building farms to grow big cities is the way to go as there are other terrain improvements that are often worth more. It does mean that building many small cities close to each other is not as smart as a few larger cities, because the larger cities can be better defended or can supply an additional offensive army next to its own defensive units. (You also don't want to have many small cities because of high city maintenance.)

In combination with the article on civic upkeep, one can see that the additional free unit support from the vassalage civic is less than the upkeep cost of this civic (except for very small empires). (The vassalage civic gives 0.1 N + 5 extra free unit support, but it costs more than 0.15 N as a civic.) This doesn't make the civic useless as it also offers 2 experience to all units that are trained, but it is something to consider when choosing this civic. If your leader is organized, then the civic upkeep costs are halved and the additional free unit support offered by the vassalage civic is actually comparable to its upkeep cost.

Unit Supply costs are the simplest to explain.
You can have 4 units outside your borders for free on any difficulty.
If you send out more, it costs 0.5:gold: per turn to do so. (rounded down)
If I have 5 units outside my borders, it costs 0:gold: per turn
If I have 6 units outside my borders, it costs 1:gold: per turn
If I have 7 units outside my borders, it costs 1:gold: per turn
If I have 8 units outside my borders, it costs 2:gold: per turn (etc.)

Military Unit costs only activate when you run Pacifism.

Now for the main big expense that isn't city maintenance.
Unit Cost:
Basically, you are allowed to own 5 units on Deity without having to pay any gold. (Military units, workers, settlers, missionaries, etc.)
This number can increase by 0.24*x rounded down where x is the total population of your empire.
So on Deity if your empire has 4 population, you can have 5 units for free. (On easier difficulty, this number is higher :pat:)
If your empire reaches 5 population, you can have 6 units for free.
If your empire reaches 9 population, you can have 7 units for free.

Right now on Turn 64, my empire has 3 population and 7 units (4 Warriors, 2 Workers, 1 Settler)
5 units are free, so I only have to pay for 2 of them.
But instead of -2:gold: per turn, I'm paying -4:gold: per turn in unit costs!!!

Even worse, the little noticed handicap modifier is against me too.
Normally on Deity, the modifier is 0%.
This modifier is basically like a % off coupon.
On Noble difficulty the modifier is 50%, so that means whatever unit cost you are paying gets reduced by 50%
Spoiler :

In this example, the empire has 16 units and 12 are free.
Since it is Noble difficulty, a handicap of 50% is applied and results in the bill being reduced from -4:gold: to -2:gold:

On Deity, there is no handicap help.
Whatever the Unit Cost is, you have to pay it.

And on Deity Giant Earth Map Mod, there appears to be a negative handicap!
Not only am I paying double the unit costs of 4:gold: for 2 units instead of 2:gold:, I'm paying some unknown handicap percentage more!
Spoiler :

Handicap cost: +1:gold: :twitch:


================================================
TLDR (Too long didn't read):
Instead of paying -2:gold: per turn like everyone else playing BTS Deity, I'm paying -5:gold: per turn for 2 units. (I have 7 units total, 5 free)
If I build an army without deleting every exploration unit and garrison unit (all 4 warriors), I'll be plunged into financial ruin.

Monarchy with tons of garrison troops is now useless if I pay 2:gold: or 3:gold: per turn for each garrison unit. :hmm:
Spamming Warriors in cottage cities normally allows a player to spend 1:gold: per turn to raise the city happiness cap by 1 to work an extra cottage.
This won't work well if you have to pay 2.5:gold: per turn to work an extra cottage.
Maybe it would be worth it in a Bureau capital.

I will either need very large cities or tons of gold to build a Deity worthy army. :cry:

With techs costing +108% more :science:, insane maintenance costs for units, and military units costing 50% less :hammers:, the Deity AI are going to be almost impossible to fight.
Even now on Turn 64, building 4 more units to get me to 11 units would increase my deficit from -5:gold: to -15:gold: per turn and I'd have to reduce my research to 0% to stay out of STRIKE.
I need to think things over...
 
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