Giant Earth Map game poll

[civvver]

I started a game using the Giant Earth Map mod and it went swimmingly. So well in fact, that I feel completing it would just be an exercise in button pressing without any major decisions involved. You can see my other game here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=443536

Thus I'm going to start a second Giant Earth Map game and am polling the audience to see who you guys think I should play. I will most likely play this on Emperor difficulty. Any of the civs available in Giant Earth Map are fine, but for poll purposes I only listed 9. But you can list your own preference in a reply. I'd prefer to stay away from any European civ, as I just showed how easy it is to rush Europe and win that way.

Below I posted some world builder screenshots with all the civs having built one city so you can get an idea of where they start.

I am leaning towards a game as America, since I've never actually completed one with a north american civ.

Spoiler :

 

[The Oz-Man]

What a weird map that is. So I assume that's Joao down in Brazil?

I'd say an American civ might be fun. I was pulling for Pacal, who's got good traits but seems hemmed in by jungle and Monty, just to see what you could do with him. Failing that, Brazil.

 

[krikav]

Not sure if this is the map I tried once.
But I tried to play as china, but 10 turns into the game, I found a grassland hill with cows, that was forested...

As far as I know, this should be against map script, and I don't like playing scenarios that make exceptions to the "standard" map script.

If I want to see elephants on ice, or a banana plantation on tundra, I would play fantasy-realm script.

I like scenarios that operate in the same framework as standard play.

 

[Fleme]

Not sure if this is the map I tried once.
But I tried to play as china, but 10 turns into the game, I found a grassland hill with cows, that was forested...

As far as I know, this should be against map script, and I don't like playing scenarios that make exceptions to the "standard" map script.

If I want to see elephants on ice, or a banana plantation on tundra, I would play fantasy-realm script.

I like scenarios that operate in the same framework as standard play.

That pretty much just means you're against every single Earth map out there. Nothing wrong with a little variety. As for my vote, I'm casting it to Mali, although all choices look viable. Good job not even including European civs.

Also, I'm like 95% sure you won't finish the game you start.

 

[civvver]

I intentionally left out the European civs because they aren't very challenging.

Yes, that is Joao in Brazil. Pacal is a very challenging civ because he has no where to expand to really without fighting Montezuma, but challenging is ok.

This map isn't for everyone. It's chock full of resources which makes it a lot different than normal map scripts. I think it's fun myself.

 

[r_rolo1]

Korea looks interesting enough ...

 

[civvver]

Korea is a very fun civ to play on this map. You've got powerhouses in Japan and China next door, plus some of the most fertile land.

I'm going to be with the fam this weekend, so I'll decide and play the first round Monday. Get your votes in! I appreciate the participation.

 

[Civman33]

Voted Brazil. Very interesting as you are sharing a continent with just one civ, and you can't conquer him since he is too far away.

 

[Optical]

My vote goes to an Israel game, to see the most made out of an average (at best) start.

 

[civvver]

My vote goes to an Israel game, to see the most made out of an average (at best) start.

Jerusalem is a powerhouse of a city, but then don't have a lot of other dynamite spots, somewhat forcing you to conquer Babylon or Egypt. Normally conquering some neighbors wouldn't be an issue with Vultures, bu Babylon and Egypt both have UUs that directly counter Vultures (war chariots on the offensive side and bowmen on defense)! It's extremely frustrating and makes for a good challenge.

 

[Optical]

With those neighbours, I can see why Jerusalem would need to be a powerhouse...

 

[civvver]

And the winner is... Brazil!

I'm starting the game on the modern resources scenario, Joao of Brazil, epic speed, monarch difficulty. I know, I know, I said I would probably do emperor, but the americas are typically so behind the rest of the world. I mean I have no one to rush, my tech trade partners are monty, sitting bull, and pacal and hc with crappy land, and I have space to expand but it's covered in jungles. Monarch should be plenty challenging.

The start:





I settled in place. 1N is possibly better with sugar and pigs, but I would've lost the flood plain corn, and water on this map is actually good tiles, and I didn't feel like waiting a turn to settle. Coast is 1 food, 1 hammer, 1 commerce, which gets 2 food with harbor, plus I have the unique building that gives even more commerce for water tiles.

Initial thoughts: There's no copper nearby (I know this map, being a scenario) and fogbusting the entire amazon is quite a chore so we need to be ready for barbarians. So agriculture to cultivate my nearby corn first but then hunting -> archery will probably be my tech path so I have some defense. I also really want to get metal casting for the colossus but it's an expensive tech and doubtful I will get to the oracle without marble nearby and a lot of industrious civs elsewhere. So for now I'm just going to research the basic improvement techs and expand peacefully.

I sent my warrior exploring and found a hut with some gold. In the meantime I started my research and built a workboat followed by a warrior, worker, warrior, settler.

Spoiler :

Then I bumped into this guy:

Spoiler :

Somehow beat HC to this other hut but it had crappy experience.

Spoiler :

In the meantime Buddhism and Hinduism were founded. Unfortunately for me neither seem to be on my continent. I quickly founded Sao Paulo. It's pretty easy to build settlers with this much food and imperialistic. Nice traits for conquering the amazon. I founded Sao Paulo inland to grab the stone and gold. You can't tell from the screenshots but the grassland tile west of the corn is a floodplain so some nice food there for Sao Paulo once I can expand the border.

Spoiler :

I kept my warrior scouting north and met monty and pacal. No religions. Darn. I may need to make a push for code of laws myself. Stonehenge was built in a far away land and I founded Salvador a few turns after. Close to gems, plenty of food. Once I get some forges up happiness shouldn't be a problem in South America, though a religion would help.

Spoiler :

After Archery I'm researching Bronze Working so I can start clearing these forests near Rio. I'm going to keep spamming settlers and workers until my economy just can't handle it anymore. I'll also need Iron Working soon to get to clearing these jungles and pottery for some cottages. That should be enough to recover my expansionist economy... I hope!

I'm not really expecting any early wars. HC is not so aggressive and we have a lot of space between us. Monty is insane but he has Sitting Bull north and Pacal south to take the brunt of his bloodthirst. So I guess I'm kinda just playing it by ear but expecting a peaceful game until the middle ages at least.

 

[ShengWuLien]

It looks like farmed floodplains/grassland/corn will be an 8 food tile. Is that right? Seems mighty powerful.

Also, everyone knows that sheep, deer, and pigs can live on hills, but horses, cows, and elephants never do! Your map makes my sense of reality bend and warp.

 

[civvver]

It's the Giant Earth Map mod, it's unconventional to say the least. Check out the mod thread for full details.

And an 8 food tile might seem powerful, but some capitals on this map have access to three such tiles! It's supposed to be a very populated world.

 

[MarigoldRan]

Ha ha. Imagine a large empire and corporations on this map.

 

[Hippias Minor]

Wouln't the game have more visibility if you started a new thread specifically for it?

 

[GGracchus]

Obviously go IW soon. IIRC on earth18 HC never goes out of the Andes, hopefully this is the same and you get an entire continent free(practically)

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

Obviously go IW soon. IIRC on earth18 HC never goes out of the Andes, hopefully this is the same and you get an entire continent free(practically)

No. Huayna isn't blocked off on this map.

civvver is going to have to contest with Huayna Capac over the South American continent and depending on how slow the expansion is,
probably Pacal as well.

 

[civvver]

Wouln't the game have more visibility if you started a new thread specifically for it?

I supposed it would, but I didn't want to spam the forum with a bunch of giant earth map threads. Is there a way to close the poll?

Quick note, this mod does not penalize for jungle. Yes it's weird. You still have to clear it to build improvements but you don't lose a food from it so you can expand before iron working though the jungle cities won't produce much without improvements.

Hyuna is already becoming bothersome. I'll have the update up soon.

 

[civvver]

Next round!

When I left off I was just settling my second city, finishing up archery and then researching bronze working to enable access to some forested resources. There is no bronze nearby and I'm expecting an onslaught of barbs soon, thus archery is essential.

I did some exploring of the amazon and found that the Inca have been expanding in the wrong direction. A little problematic, but I think I can beat them to the sweet resources that lie in Argentina.

Spoiler :

I founded my third and fourth cities, Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza. I'm not really one for overlap on this map due to the high food. These cities should all be able to work all worthwhile tiles on their own. Overlapping cottages is nice and all but didn't seem feasible in these placements.

Spoiler :

I sent a boat north and ran into America and got notice that a third religion was founded, again not on my continent. Unfortunate. I'm really starting to worry, as philosophy is a long way off for me and with how the AI loves divine right, we may not see a religion until astronomy enables overseas trade. I should have enough happiness once I get forges up, but I will miss the other benefits like civics and monasteries.

In the meantime I am getting pelted with barbarians. Good thing I got archers up and running. It's mostly warriors with an occasional spearman. I also see that America is having their own hard time with the barbs, losing New York:

Spoiler :

After bronze working I went pottery for much needed cottages. My gnp is awful right now, I'm in the bottom third on the demographics. Research is holding at 50% so I'm not terrified to settle new cities, and did so with Brasilia. I wanted to keeping expanding south but you can see Huayna is blocking me. Not a huge deal for now as I can't afford a war or much more expansion.

Spoiler :

All this time I should mention I am lacking in things to build due to the slow research so I am spamming archers, but supporting units costs to much so I am building and deleting units every turn. Yes it's a waste, I suppose I could send these guys on a crusade against Huayna but I'd still have to pay upkeep til they die and I can't afford his cities. Anyway, it is something you should consider on marathon speeds when research is slow and you have to build something. There's something in this mod that makes units build quicker than research so epic is the epic amount of turns but doesn't suffer the same build units penalties as normal. You'd have to check the mod page for full details. Also since I'm at happy cap in my cities and don't need production I am micro managing the workers putting them on any tile with commerce, even if it's just one. Just gotta remember to switch them back once I have stuff to build.

Next Inca offered me this sweet deal, and I founded another city.

Spoiler :

Then things got weird. You can see in the Curitiba screenshot Inca is not in war mode (with this mod you get the fist by their name on the scoreboard just like bug mod), yet one turn later they declare. I guess I had such a puny army they needed zero time for buildup. However they didn't immediately invade or even take my worker so I am perplexed as to Huayna's plan. Either way it's a setback, but a minor one. My archers can't touch his axes and spears on the offensive, but I'm not very worried about his axes and spears crossing rivers to fight my archers either. And because he has both hunting and bronze working his warriors are obsolete so he can't quecha rush me with a cheap unit. I'll just need to build some extra archers to be safe.

Spoiler :

I founded one final city and called it a round.

Spoiler :

Here's where things get dicey. The pyramids, temple or artemis and great lighthouse have already been built far, far away. Thus no economic wonder bailouts in my immediate future. I'm shooting for metal casting to get the colossus but it's a long shot with my research and production. My research is almost all scientists now too, which is fine I guess since my happy cap is low and I don't need excess food. I can only hope the AI passes up MC for a while as they seem to do sometimes. I worry I may have expanding too much as my slider is down to 30% research. But Inca was cutting in on my turf so I felt rushed to build cities. I think I'll have to do no more cities until code of laws maybe.

Take a look at my research situation and demographics:

Spoiler :

Tech situation is not good to say the least. 160AD and barely into the classical era. The wonders tab shows chitchen itza, so I know the far away AI is into code of laws, probably has calendar and currency too. My gnp is below average and 23rd out of 35. Pretty bad. The silver lining is I'm doing better than my north and south american counterparts, keeping pace with Inca's research and killing everyone on mfg, which is good for when we go to war.

In other words I should be able to come out the strongest on my island, but it will be an uphill battle to win against the old world. I'll probably need some savvy tech trades when the time comes. This is really showing the big differences in land some civs have on this map. There's a size 15 city on the top 5 cities list while my happy cap is at 7 right now. Big difference. It makes for a fun, challenging game though.

Advice is appreciated on what you think my research path from here should be, how I should deal with the Inca and when.


EDIT: I played a couple turns and this happened:

Spoiler :

So now that the colossus is gone, do I continue researching metal casting for forges and extra happiness from my gems and gold, or switch to something else? The happiness will let me field more scientists, but code of laws and currency are a long way off and perhaps I should start that path now.