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GOTM 04 - Pre-Game Discussion

Discussion in 'Civ4 - Game of the Month' started by ainwood, Feb 25, 2006.

Page 13 of 14
  1. bradleyfeanor

    bradleyfeanor King

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    That's right. The easiest way to see what you will get for a Great Scientist, for instance, would be to go to "Data", "Sort", then choose "Sort by" "Scientist" "Descending", and choose "Then by" "Base Cost" "Ascending."

    Once you do that, the techs you will get for a Great Scientist will be listed in order. The tech you will get is the first tech listed that you have not researched, but do have the prerequisites to research.

    Edited due to backwardness.
     
    bradleyfeanor, Mar 3, 2006
    #241
  2. kingjoshi

    kingjoshi King

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    that's backwards. Sort by Scientists descending and base cost ascending.

    Didn't you create the file ;)
     
    kingjoshi, Mar 3, 2006
    #242
  3. bradleyfeanor

    bradleyfeanor King

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    :blush: Guess I did at that...Thanks, corrected. Need to drink more coffee before trying to do something difficult, like think.;)
     
    bradleyfeanor, Mar 3, 2006
    #243
  4. Methos

    Methos HoF Quattromaster Moderator Hall of Fame Staff

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    I suggest PM'ing one of the GOTM Staff and asking them if they would send you a different save, just for fun.
     
    Methos, Mar 3, 2006
    #244
  5. Sarek

    Sarek Logical

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    Here, Here.....
    No "Spoiler intended or implied..."
     
    Sarek, Mar 3, 2006
    #245
  6. A'AbarachAmadan

    A'AbarachAmadan Deity

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    First, thanks to those who posted the practice games; very helpful!

    High difficulty at normal speed. Sounds like fastest finish domination will be a big challenge (well, even just domination), so that is my game this month (at least to start).

    I haven't gone the religious route since game 1, so starting with mysticism I'll try it. I feel like I'm cornered on the right edge of the world, so getting a 2d city out to the East will be a priority. Also, in practice games The Oracle was always built by 1250BC, so I'm going to try to get it before that, which means Polytheism and Priesthood will be done relatively early, probably before BW. I'd like to do some worker wars, but with 2 archers and the worker to start for each enemy, not sure if that will be viable as in the practice games they often escorted their workers. :( After BW and forges, I will try to use slavery to my advantage (generally like to do 2 or more citizens at once; overbuilt the happiness by X, then use X+1 citizens is my favorite option), though it won't be a priority to get there. I want to assimilate my closest neighbor before they can defend themselves well. Here's hoping its America or some other Civ without a good early UU.
     
    A'AbarachAmadan, Mar 4, 2006
    #246
  7. DynamicSpirit

    DynamicSpirit Fear him of the pink tie Moderator GOTM Staff

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    Hmmm. Time to start planning strategy and start actually playing the GOTM.

    After lots of thought and soul-searching (sod the 'it's only a game' :lol: ) I think I'm going to go for the adventurer version (Never won on emperor so I qualify). My reasoning is: I want to have some fun and go for the early wonder/religion/culture -> cultural victory route. From some practice games, it seems it's usually just about possible to do that and get most early wonders, but it's stretching at the limits of my ability, and I usually end up culture-rich but without enough units to stop myself getting stomped on by whoever first decides I'll be an easy target. Worse - from the initial screenshot, this game looks harder than most of my practices because (1) not much forest to chop, (2) seems to be at the end of a continent => not much production and going to be even more confined than normal in the initial land-grab. So I'm thinking adventurer could make the difference between a 15%-discounted victory and a game that ends up with me just drifting, strong enough to live out the game until someone else builds a spaceship, but not strong enough to ever win.

    The adventurer-level bonuses - I can see that extra settler could be a poisoned chalice - I know from my practices it's incredibly easy to totally kill your science by founding one too many cities (or cities in the wrong places without enough opportunities for early commerce). However, used properly, it means you don't have to research bronze working quite so early to chop first settlers/workers. That means I can research worker improvements earlier (which in turn helps science). Also, those archers make early stealing of AI workers a lot more realistic (you don't 95% probability lose your warrior (ie. 33% or 50% of your army :crazyeye: ) the turn after you've committed the theft! - and you have a decent chance of escorting said worker back to your lands without him getting eaten by a bear en route...). Set against that, there's a potential issue that I'll be founding my 2nd city without knowing where the copper is - I might regret that later on. But I think that's more than offset by the advantages of the extra settler.

    In terms of strategy, I'll most likely research polytheism first. If there'd been any rivers nearby, I'd have micromanaged city tiles to emphasize commerce - shaving 1 or 2 turns off polytheism could make all the difference to getting the religion, but that's not going to be possible with this start so I'll just have to hope. I'll settle my second city most likely the turn I discover polytheism, not before (or - the turn someone else beats me to polytheism and so I'm no longer interested in it). Actually I might do it the turn before in the hope that my second city will be assigned as the Hindu Holy City. I can't see the initial capital being a big culture centre - the starting area in the start screenshot just doesn't have the production potential, and if I'm going for a cultural victory, I don't want to waste the 5 culture/turn from Holy City on a city that won't be one of the three culture centres. After that, depends a bit what land I've discovered, but fishing will be a very early tech - just so I've got the option of switching to water tiles if my research starts dying. While I'm researching polytheism, I'll probably have the capital build a barracks just because it has to build something - I'll be a bit reluctant to build many more military units too early because I'll have an eye on the unit cost (not quite sure how many free ones you get - need to check). And I can see the adventurer free worker is going to start by mining that hill and then be sitting around with nothing to do for a fair while, but never mind. Perhaps I'll research the wheel next instead of fishing, to make sure I can use him. Beyond that - who knows....
     
    DynamicSpirit, Mar 6, 2006
    #247
  8. aviator99_uk

    aviator99_uk Warlord

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    Just can't see me bothering with this one. Typically play Monarch/marathon/islands/domination, (and have fun), the settings for GOTM4 give me problems at Prince level, using a leader I understand. Just don't understand Ghandi's strengths, haven't understood how to play early period expansion on non island maps, and with only a month to develop those skills..... sounds like too much frustration to me.
     
    aviator99_uk, Mar 7, 2006
    #248
  9. totororo

    totororo Chieftain

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    Well. I tried a couple of time to do the CS slingshot, researching alphabet before CoL, and much more than half of the time, the AI beat me to the Oracle. I definitely think that it's overdangerous to wait after 1200BC to build the Oracle. But i don't see any way to do the alphabet_COL_CS slingshot before that date.

    I do believe you were lucky, Memphus... But maybe i am missing something. (kamina, did you achieve this alphabet-cs slingshot?)
     
    totororo, Mar 8, 2006
    #249
  10. DynamicSpirit

    DynamicSpirit Fear him of the pink tie Moderator GOTM Staff

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    I don't believe you can do CS slingshot at emperor level, except just occasionally you might get exceptionally lucky and pull it off. In my experience even COL slingshot is taking quite a risk. IMO you're best off building the oracle as soon as you can consistent with not totally neglecting the techs you need to build your basic infrastructure, and taking whatever you can get from it when it's complete. Any delay and the chances of the AI beating you to it grow very rapidly. COL-slingshot is more doable than CS but requires you to research writing - a moderately expensive tech that doesn't really help your empire at that stage of the game. Making sure you're set up to have the option of metal casting from the Oracle is I think a safer strategy, as the prerequisites are ones you almost certainly need anyway.
     
    DynamicSpirit, Mar 8, 2006
    #250
  11. JerichoHill

    JerichoHill Bedrock of Knowledge

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    You can do the CoL slingshot reliability on Emporer, but you have to make it your #1 priority.

    Otherwise, it is a very big gambit.

    When I play, I think...Okay first priority, get a slingshot, so I pour everything into that, every decision I make, gets me there.

    Then when i'm on my way, I develop my next goal, and postion/plan accordingly
     
    JerichoHill, Mar 8, 2006
    #251
  12. beestar

    beestar subdeity

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    Any comments on expansion? I played one of the practice games and was only able to form three cities before being bottled in by my neighbours. I leapfrogged some of their cities by building two more of mine farther away, in the hopes of culture-flipping them later, but I'm not sure if this will work.
     
    beestar, Mar 8, 2006
    #252
  13. whb

    whb King

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    [doh, wrong browser tab]
     
    whb, Mar 8, 2006
    #253
  14. Jesper Portus

    Jesper Portus Chieftain

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    I am sorry, where can I download GOTM 4? I REad, that there are Spoilers, but I can´t find the Save?!
     
    Jesper Portus, Mar 9, 2006
    #254
  15. Ribannah

    Ribannah Fighter Druid

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    Look for the tread named 'saves available'. ;)
     
    Ribannah, Mar 9, 2006
    #255
  16. DaviddesJ

    DaviddesJ Deity

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    You don't have to develop your skills before playing the game. The whole idea is to develop your skills by playing the game.

    You won't score as high as the people who play 20 "practice" games before they play the GOTM. So what?
     
    DaviddesJ, Mar 9, 2006
    #256
  17. Dolphan

    Dolphan Warlord

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    Well, I finished 279th out of 290 on GOTM3 with the 4th-lowest adventurer score and have never even tried to play emperor before. But the adventurer bonuses just look too good, so odds are on for the fastest open-class defeat ...
     
    Dolphan, Mar 11, 2006
    #257
  18. ionimplant

    ionimplant Prince

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    will start the game today. wow, this's the first time that i haven't started the game more than 10 days after the game release. now even the final spoiler is out. must finish it quickly so that i can start to read them :p
     
    ionimplant, Mar 12, 2006
    #258
  19. Samson

    Samson Deity

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    Just a little question, the spoiler 1 thread says "You must have a full view of the starting continent.". However this is unlikely to happen until paper. Is everyone waiting until they have every tile of the starting continent? I can live with that, but if there is another proviso in the thread somewhere it would be nice to know.
     
    Samson, Mar 13, 2006
    #259
  20. Thrallia

    Thrallia Prodigal Staffer GOTM Staff

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    most people are writing it at about the point in time that ainwood said to stop at, between 1AD and 500AD.

    it is just a general guideline...if you have met every civ and know the general layout of the continent, I believe that would probably be good enough
     
    Thrallia, Mar 13, 2006
    #260
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