GOTM - 01: A New Beginning. Pre-Game Discussion

[Mike Lemmer]

I learned that my second game. I was playing the Japanese on a Continents map and going for a Conquest victory. I ran into Hapshetut early in the game and made an alliance with her. Technically I should've wiped her off the map, but I got a lot of bonuses for it and doubled the amount of tech I got. I decided to make up for it by immediately declaring war on the other continent. Stupid, stupid idea.

First, I declared war when I didn't have many units ready to go. I spent 10 turns preparing for war and by the time I got them over there (another 10 turns) and started blowing **** up, my populace was already getting war weary. In addition, France had enough time to build up a defense. I was fighting them on their home turf and the only reinforcements were 9 units every 20 turns from my galleons. By the time we signed a peace treaty, I had only captured one useless banana port. I should have feigned peace, waited until I had 5 fully-loaded war galleons right outside his borders, and then declared war by blitzing straight into his first city.

Second, I should have made a deal with one of the continent's other civilizations. Not only would I have been able to use their land to store my troops, but I could've convinced them to help me declare war on France. They would keep them occupied for a dozen turns or so, and I'd even want them to capture a couple cities themselves as well. Their captured cities' culture would plummet to 0 & relieve the pressure on my conquests. I wasn't thinking of that, though. I was being a dumb brute.

Anyway, if you want to have a quick Domination victory on Continents, you need to get familiar with galleons. Circumnavigate the globe first to get the +1 Naval movement bonus. Invest in missionaries to start fragmenting the other civilizations; odds are they all have the same religion and you don't want an entire continent hating your guts. Having a couple friends (you can keep in line) makes all the difference.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

Given the facts that:

1) There's no patch in sight and it's already the 11th,
2) In the United States, there's a big holiday coming up (Thanksgiving) which will send a lot of people on the road for long weekends, and
3) The game doesn't work on most laptops

With that in mind, I wonder if it makes sense to extend the deadline on this GOTM. I guess I see a few options for the GOTM to consider:
1) Extend the deadline to December 31, and we get a long first "month" mfor the GOTM.
2) Extend the deadline to December 15 or so, start the next GOTM with a January 31 due date, and thereafter, we're down to one month/one game.
3) Move the GOTM off the calendar month (so the GOTM would run from the 15th to the 15th, for example)
4) Say "To hell with you Americans with your silly holidays" and if people can't make the deadline, then so be it.
5) Start the game now without waiting for the patch.

Probably there are other options I didn't think of.

 

[Shillen]

Wait for the patch and then make a decision after we know for sure when it is. Hell it could be weeks away for all we know. I know there was that little news clip on the main page, but that was a tech support email to a user. I doubt the guy expected his email to reach the civfanatics main page or he wouldn't have said it. Likely firaxis is finding several other important issues to patch in and doesn't want to do them separately and could push the patch back farther and farther.

 

[ainwood]

We will give you a month (30 days) to play the game regardless of when we start it. We'll sort-out the schedule for the second GOTM once we have the first one up-and-running. Probably start it on the first of the month anyway.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

We will give you a month (30 days) to play the game regardless of when we start it. We'll sort-out the schedule for the second GOTM once we have the first one up-and-running. Probably start it on the first of the month anyway.

Cool! That's great to know. I figured you guys had probably thought about this.

 

[remconius]

Any word on the patch? I would really like to get this game going.

Maybe we can just start this as a learner game. For fun more than for rank and to learn from each other's experiences.

We'll call this IVOTM 0, and start with 1 when the patch is released..

 

[DarthBeer]

I'm looking forward to this gotm. I played afew conquest gotm's and generally got burnt out on civ 3.
I picked up IV last week, and I have contracted one more turn syndrome yet again.

 

[Tech Step]

well after a 2 year hiatis from civ I found out that civ iv was out and went straight to the shops and bought it. I think that the last time I played a GOTM It was when ainwood was just starting out as the GOTM creator. is Cracker still around?

 

[DaveShack]

4. Use their land as a base for my invasions into enemy territory, because invading by sea sucks.

This will help a lot if it works, but there's a hidden gotcha! If the civ you have open borders with to use as a land base cancels the open borders, your units move instantly to somewhere outside their borders. This is actually worth play testing to see where they teleport to. What if every plot on the continent is inside someone's borders, and you have closed borders with everyone else? Do your units appear on a deserted island somewhere? If you're already at war with the target do they land inside enemy territory?

 

[Shillen]

This will help a lot if it works, but there's a hidden gotcha! If the civ you have open borders with to use as a land base cancels the open borders, your units move instantly to somewhere outside their borders. This is actually worth play testing to see where they teleport to. What if every plot on the continent is inside someone's borders, and you have closed borders with everyone else? Do your units appear on a deserted island somewhere? If you're already at war with the target do they land inside enemy territory?

Good point. So make sure you have good relations with them. If your relations are borderline it's probably not worth it. But I've never had a civ that was pleased with me cancel open borders.

 

[shortguy]

Another contribution to the forest discussion: unless you need the health benefits, in the late game workshop + state property is better than forest. I would almost say that state property is unbalanced, especially if you manage to get it early with the pyramids.

 

[DaveMcW]

Pyramids only gives you the 5 government civics (first column). You still have to research the other 20, including State Property.

 

[RoddyVR]

Any word on the patch? I would really like to get this game going.

Maybe we can just start this as a learner game. For fun more than for rank and to learn from each other's experiences.

We'll call this IVOTM 0, and start with 1 when the patch is released..

i whole hartedly second this proposal.

i'm having a difficult time finishing my games (have left 3 already at the point where its prety clear i'll win, but not actualy won it). playing the IVOTM would make me finaly finish a game, which i realy should do. got far enough in this game to realize that i should have been using workshops much more then i do (i HATE them early on), and there's probably other things like this that i would learn from finishing a game.

Pyramids only gives you the 5 government civics (first column). You still have to research the other 20, including State Property.

which is why i've completely stopped building them.

 

[DaveMcW]

It's really nice to have Police State in a warmonger game, so I tend to target the civ that built the Pyramids. I will try to build them if I have stone connected.

 

[Carboni]

Pyramids are great because you can access Representation or Universal Sufferage early. I prefer the happy-face/science bonus of Representation myself. Especially in the early game, where the population is capped by happiness.

 

[MeteorPunch]

It's really nice to have Police State in a warmonger game, so I tend to target the civ that built the Pyramids. I will try to build them if I have stone connected.

I did something similar in my last game. Built the Pyramids myself and became a police state around the time of catapults and macemen up until I got a domination victory.

 

[hendu]

Can someone who has created the opening scene in world builder upload the file?

 

[Ribannah]

Any word on the patch? I would really like to get this game going.

Maybe we can just start this as a learner game. For fun more than for rank and to learn from each other's experiences.

We'll call this IVOTM 0, and start with 1 when the patch is released..

I'm with you. We can use this one to test the mechanics of the IVOTM.

 

[Slestak]

Looking at starting position, I think I may try the initial spot. The defensive properties will make this pretty tough with river on two sides and the hill. The initial production will be ok as well.

 

[Zhahz]

I can't see the opening screenshot from work or home (fast connects at both and no network security nonsense at home to deal with). :-/