GOTM-02: Pre-Game discussion

[ainwood]

GOTM-02: Pre Game Discussion

This game MUST be played in patch version 1.52.

In addition, if any further patches are released before the end of january, you will have to complete your game in v152 and submit before patching.

Game settings:
Civilization: England (Leader: Elizabeth; Traits: Philosophical & Financial)
Rivals: 6 (Random)
Difficulty: Prince
Map: Lakes
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Tropical
Waterlevel: Low
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Epic
Victory Conditions: all enabled

The starting screenshot is here:

 

[ainwood]

Leader Traits

First up, Elizabeth is Financial and Philosophical.

Financial:

1. +1 commerce on plots with at least 2 commerce.
2. Double production speed of Bank.

I quite like the financial trait -it provides quite a bit of extra cash, especially in water tiles - coastal cities can generate a lot of commerce. Building cottages becomes even more valuable - build them on a river and you've effectively got an instant hamlet - and it can still grow.

The bank comes late(ish) in the game, but it still provides a bonus - 50% extra gold in the city.


Philosophical:

1. +100 great-person birth-rate.
2. Double production speed of University.

I consider Philosophical to be another very strong trait - this trait can give you a few extra great-people throught a game, and careful use of them can give you a great advantage - especially if you secure a few wonders to generate great people points.

The other benefit is the double production speed of universities - good in itself; but it also means that you can build Oxford University much faster!



Unique Unit

You unique unit is the Redcoat; a replacement for the Rifleman. It costs the same as an ordinary rifleman (137 hammers in the epic game), but it has a strenght of 16 compared with the 14 strength of the standard rifleman. In addition, it gains +25% vs gunpowder units (in addition to the riflemen's +25% vs mounted units). In effect - this acts as an instant 'pinch' promotion - which provides a slight nullification against the main counter to rifleman, the grenadier.

 

[ainwood]

<reserved>

 

[DaviddesJ]

Gee, how disappointing. There's no way I'm going to invest many, many hours in another game at Noble level. I like to participate in the GOTM, but it's just not very interesting to play when I know I'm going to be way ahead throughout the whole game.

Edit: The level was announced incorrectly and it is going to be Prince after all, as I originally expected. I withdraw my complaint.

 

[DarthBeer]

Let's see, I think I'll settle right where I'm at. Looks like tundra and ice up north, plains to the east, and nothing eye catching to the S or W. So it looks like we'll have wheat and sheep to start with. Pretty typical start, I would say.
England starts with fishing and mining... not many forests to chop right off the bat, so I'll probably hold off on bronze working and start with agriculture then animal husbandry to take advantage of what we got, then probably bronze working.
No early religion, unless I pop a hut and get mysticism, then I may consider it.

Not too bad, kind of hoping for a prince level, but its only the 2nd GOTM. I'm digging epic speed though.

 

[Ribannah]

Fishing and Sailing are other priorities.

The Warrior will go up the hill, to check if we're missing something by settling on the starting tile. But the starting position looks good, it would be hard to beat.

I like epic speed, by the way.

 

[Grogs]

Starting techs are fishing and mining.

There's a lot of food in the starting location. Plains/wheat, Grass/sheep, and 3 lake tiles that will become (with a lighthouse) 3f/3g tiles. It does seem to be a bit short on hammers, though. Just the one plains/hill, a plains forest, and 1h each from the other plains or grass/forest tiles.

 

[Gnid]

Pretty nice starting location. Ecpecially with financial leader trait.

 

[colony]

I think once the plains/hill is mined there'll be a reasonable number of shields, but the capital doesn't look as though it'll be that great for building wonders, unless there's also iron or copper in the radius that we can't see yet. I'll probably end up going for conquest or domination anyway.

And I really like the Epic speed

 

[Dynamic]

What is the main difference between Normal and Epic speeds?

 

[AU_Armageddon]

Cool. Can't wait.

With that starting posi, and it being only Noble, I'll definately be sacrificing a couple turns to explore south (river may hold even more promise) and south-east options (you can see more grassland se too) for the starting city.

The ice to the north means it's likely you aren't gonna be able to expand that way, and the desert makes the west a risk that could turn out unusable.

To keep the palace more centered, minimising maintainence, this starting spot seems like a good place to hedge your bets and reserve it for your second city. One square up (just below sheep) may even prove the better spot for that city if there is a sea resource in that blacked out sea square.

3 days and counting!

 

[MeteorPunch]

What is the main difference between Normal and Epic speeds?

Units have more turns to move. There are also some little changes, too.

The starting position looks pretty food heavy-shield poor. Moving south is an interesting idea for the gamblers - I don't think I'll do it, food is good.

This lakes map is almost all land, and sized 52x32 instead of 84x52.

 

[DaveMcW]

Lighthouses are very powerful in this position. All freshwater lakes get boosted to 3 food.

 

[remconius]

Great! another game to break our heads over. And epic... but why not marathon ;-) *edit* not Noble but Prince will offer a nice challenge*

Lots of food, low shields though. Clearing all forests will hurt in production a lot. It will support many specialists, ie GP factory, but limited wonders. Judging from the yield map, we are next to the coast and lakes, so lighthouse should be possible making lakes worth 3 food. That means we are looking at +9 food (+2 city, +3 sheep, +2 wheat, and +3 for each laketile) before building the first grassland farm. You'll need agriculture, animal husbandry and sailing to unlock them though. Finding health bonuses early will be most useful. Of course we have sheep and wheat. Until Londen can really expand we can use the rabbit-like breeding of population with the Slavery civic for extra production .

The tropical climate will show more of this pattern of high food and low production. Founding a few production cities where possible will help. Locations of city 2 onwards could be problematic. Ice to the north and desert to the south.

Also important to note Lakes map have no world wrap, so civs in the east and west have one side they dont need to defend as much. Judging from the screenshot we are in North and knowing GOTM we are probably in the middle (orange dot) surrounded by three opponents (Red, Cyan and Yellow). And if they expand fast enough we could be bordering 5 civs (purple and green as well) sounds like early warfare.

 

[Seraphinus]

I will settle on the spot and start with warrior and then with worker. With all that gold available research of mysticism will be first and then the goal is hinduism and then agriculture. In approximately same time the worker will be ready.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Gee, how disappointing. There's no way I'm going to invest many, many hours in another game at Noble level. I like to participate in the GOTM, but it's just not very interesting to play when I know I'm going to be way ahead throughout the whole game.

I feel the same. And a lakes map too...

-- Roland

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Psh, these are like my second least favorite traits (after Spiritual and Expansive). I'm going to have to be much more agressive than last GOTM (no turtling and expecting to get ahead), but we're not Organized, so I don't think I can get a domination victory.

 

[Rane Khan]

Lakes and Tropical. Once 'cleared up': Food heaven, production hell. Plopping early cities down in hilly landscape (if there is any) is going to be very important if you want to get any wonders. If there isn't anything hilly nearby I'll probably won't cut down much forrest (and as such won't go for Bronze right away).

The type of map seems to be made for early Conquest/Domination type of games, a lot of people are not going to use those Redcoats...

 

[whb]

This looks like a very nice start for the English, unless I'm forgetting something. The financial bonus on the lake tiles make an early religion gamble possible (not many other civs will have as much early commerce, so even if England loses the race to Hinduism, the race to Judaism looks good). And with good food and lots of commerce, London looks likely to become the science and great people centre of the world.

 

[AU_Armageddon]

You know, I will kill myself laughing if that black spot has fish. No-one has talked about the starting skills yet (I assume the 3rd post is reserved for that), but England's are Fishing and Mining. If there is a sea resource in that spot then moving up one sqaure and building a workboat IS the best start and there will be hundreds of people crying over their keyoards

Any gamblers daring enough to move up one tile and settle on their first turn?
(sacrificing two river tiles for ice and tundra with forest, but on bright side gaining a hill)