Gotm 110

Magic_gorter

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Civ2 GOTM Staff
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Game of the Month 110: May 2010


Game Settings:
Civilization: Aztecs
Map: Large map; 7 civ's, round
Difficulty: Emperor
Barbarians: Villages only
Restarts: Off
Victory by spaceship only



Starting Techs:
~ Alphabet
~ Ceremonial Burial



This month we're up to a spaceship challenge. Which person is able to land his/her spaceship earliest. For those who are interested we are playing an early landing game. There is one special rule this month. Hut popping is not allowed until 2000 BC. This requires an extra save at 2000 B.C. So don't forget this. If you don't want to play an early landing game it's ok to play a normal landing game. Those who want to try please make a special log which will be added in the GOTM 110 thread. Because this GOTM game will be used as a comparison game there will be 2 months playing time. Anyway have fun.

Games will be due on July 18th, 2010.


Please be sure to follow the submission guidelines when submitting your game (please do not send your files in a .zip file and send the extra file of 2000 BC. Attach them directly to your e-mail with your name in the save file).


Please sent the savegames only to civ2gotm@gmail.com.

Have fun.

Starting save is here

 
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This special GOTM is dedicated to finding the best Civ2 strategies for EL and Trade! To read more about this Idea, look over the CFC 10th Anniversary thread in this forum [also, recent threads in the Strat/Gen forums leading up to this GOTM]. At least 4 players are committed to taking careful notes and discussing this GOTM in more detail than usual. Others can simply play this as a normal GOTM, I guess. If you want to join us, please describe your style of play here before you start play, which you might do by answering these questions:

Do you play ICS, or follow the ELG, or have your own style (pls describe) ?
Do you give techs to your key civ ?
Do you delay Invention / Navn (to delay trade penalties)?
Do you usually aim for war or peace with the AI ?
Do you aim more for big bonuses or for ongoing routes ?
How do you get your advances - mainly from the AI ? your cities ? vans ?
How do you decide when to change govts ?
When do you build settlers vs vans vs WoWs, etc ? [roughly]
What are your first 5 WoWs ?

Magic Gorter, CharlieChuck and I have already answered these in the "10th" thread. You do NOT have to play the GOTM in the style you describe here, but pls explain any changes. During play, try to take enough notes [more than usual!] so that we can see your main decisions clearly, and can evaluate the costs and benefits.

For example, keep notes on your trade and science stats, such as - how many vans were delivered before 1AD, what was the total in trade bonuses then, how much gold was spent on RBing vans, etc. This doesn't have to be exact - an error under 10% should be OK. Keep track of how you get your advances [from AIs ? mainly from city beakers ? mainly from vans ?]. This should be pretty easy using the F5 and F6 screens. Take notes on your Mfg growth, number of cities, TSL habits and on celebrations [eg changes in TSL patterns (to measure the cost of celebrating), and your benefits from celebration].

If possible, be able to explain your results in the GOTM ... why you got advances at the rate you did, and what decisions made your results different from other players. Since this may be hard to do, please

1) Make saves at -2000, -1000, -500, 1, 500, 1000, and 1500. [and remember not to pop huts beefore -2000].

2) Record your usual stats for these years, plus extra data on trade and science:
Estimate much you are getting in trade bonuses per turn [on average].
How many ongoing routes you have
Your TSL settings
Your beakers and gold [from F5]
Your game plan for the next 20 turns [govt, production, tech goals, etc]

3) We will make especially detailed comparisons at -500, 1ad and +500. For each of these, make saves 3 turns in a row [eg -525, -500, -475]. Make notes, during these periods especially, about how much you spend RBing vans, the costs and benefits of celebrations, how you are getting your advances, and so on. We can use these "snapshots" to compare our games in greater detail than anyone has ever done !

Good luck!
 
About the no hut popping rule I got some questions and will answer them in this post:

Q: Is it allowed to place a worker in the cityscreen on a hut? This way the hut is also removed but not popped?

A: Yes this is allowed!

Q: How do you want us to prove we placed a worker on it?

A: You need to make extra saves. One save just before the worker is placed on the tile and one save after the the worker is placed on it! If somebody is planning to remove more huts in one turn this way it is not needed to make saves for every hut.

When playing be carefull when replacing your workers until 2000 BC. It's easy to make a mistake and remove an hut by accident.
 
@ Magic

Sometimes the computer places new citizens on huts if they're inside the city boundary. It happened to me when a city grew to size 2. I've been saving a lot but only have 2 turns before and one turn after.
 
@CC's post: When you see that a city is about to grow, save. Also, just before you found a city near a hut. IMO if you save every 3-4 turns (and don't have many units near huts), you can probably prove the hut wasn't popped. If someone cheats, Magic will probably notice any unexplainable changes in gold, advances, etc.

Also, the AI's decisions about placing workers are fairly predictable. You can probably avoid AI-worker-pops if you try.
 
Resource seed is 5. Starting location has one hidden special. There are two 4-special sites west and south west 4-5 tiles away.
 
There are two initial decisions everyone needs to make here and it would be nice if they make notes on it: Where to put the first city, and what to do with the second settler.
 
My initial analysis:
There is no compelling reason not to build the capital at the starting location. Due to the presence of the river tile the second settler cannot provide any immediate benefit as a worker and thus should go build a new city.

My hunch, given 2 settlers and 2 initial techs, is that we are not alone on our continent. I think I am ready to start.
 
There are two initial decisions everyone needs to make here and it would be nice if they make notes on it: Where to put the first city, and what to do with the second settler.

It is OK to share pre-game thinking;

I don't like to build on shielded grass, though it is always nice to build in -4000.
I don't normally use size 1 when I start with 2 settlers, though Grigor may convince me to do it.
I like to have forests near every city.
So, I [may have] sent my settlers NE and NW to the visible unshielded grass tiles.

IMO it is OK to pop huts in -2000, but not before. Be sure to make your -2000 save before popping!
 
Special resources are rarely found very near huts and if I found my cities away from huts, I may be able to get an Advanced Tribe or Nomads when I pop them in 2000 BC.

So I think I wil move one settler North and the other settler South.

My next move will be determined by the two revealed squares.

I may keep going if not blocked or poor terrain, OR found a city.

And if North is not good, I may move west on to the river.

I certainly plan on founding my second city before the first has produced a settler.
 
My initial thoughts were, I wanted a city on the river for the extra arrow 42,42 (also makes connecting roads to the river easier) the other city I didn't want to overlap so I sent one settler nw the other e.

I did map analysis myself, though it was quite late into the game before I was able to confidently use it.
 
@ Magic

Sometimes the computer places new citizens on huts if they're inside the city boundary. It happened to me when a city grew to size 2. I've been saving a lot but only have 2 turns before and one turn after.

@CC's post: When you see that a city is about to grow, save. Also, just before you found a city near a hut. IMO if you save every 3-4 turns (and don't have many units near huts), you can probably prove the hut wasn't popped. If someone cheats, Magic will probably notice any unexplainable changes in gold, advances, etc.

Also, the AI's decisions about placing workers are fairly predictable. You can probably avoid AI-worker-pops if you try.

Peaster gave the answer already. Just send in those two saves and I look at them.
It's indeed something to remember.
I will start right now. Had no time to play yet (holiday) but am glad there is enough time.
 
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