Gotm 118

[Magic_gorter]

Game of the Month 118: January 2011


Game Settings:
Civilization: French
Map: Special map (100x100); 7 civ's, round
Difficulty: Warlord
Barbarians: Villages only
Restarts: Off
Extra rules: It's allowed to load the map with the mapeditor to find your way through the labyrinth.
Victory: By conquest


Starting Techs:
~ Alphabet

This month is a special game. It's allowed to load the map with the mapeditor to found your way through the labyrinth.


Games will be due on February 28th, 2011.


Please be sure to follow the submission guidelines when submitting your game (please do not send your files in a .zip file. Attach them directly to your e-mail with your name in the save file). No extra save is needed.


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

Have fun.

Starting save is here

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Looks very interesting. Thanks Magic.

Extra rules: It's allowed to load the map with the mapeditor to find your way through the labyrinth.

Just to make sure, we can look at the map at any time for any reason, right?

 

[Magic_gorter]

Yes. Or if you like it you can wander around in the labyrinth and try to find the way out without help of the map. It's the only way to give everybody a fair change. I know the route already because I made the map.

I set the level low (warlords) because this game is more about getting through the labyrinth and not having to much trouble when leaving it.

 

[Jokemaster]

That map really reminds me of GOTM 115...

 

[Magic_gorter]

But in this case you can't go over the wall of ice...

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I just studied the map. Very interesting. Thanks again Magic.

There are two possible strategies for expansion that comes to my mind:
1. Build on the mountains of the labyrinth.
2. Drop some settlers on the large ice continent, move them all the way to the east shore, and build cities there. (West shore cannot support cities larger than size 1 due to lack of ocean specials, east shore can.)

Of course, the two may be combined. I have not made any decisions yet but given the size of the ice continent and the fact that a trireme can only reach it by hugging the poles (or building Lighthouse) I think 1 is significantly better.

The ultimate challenge would be to do an OCC. If this was not a conquest only game, OCC would not be that difficult.

 

[Peaster]

Yes. Or if you like it you can wander around in the labyrinth and try to find the way out without help of the map.

I am tempted to do this, if the labyrinth is not TOO crazy. Can you give us a hint on how hard this would be (maybe in a "spoiler window" or an early spoiler thread) ? For example, if the only grass nearby is the tiny isle, we'll only have approx 2 triremes for exploring ... would they have a good chance to get out before going nuts ?

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Do not be tempted. Look at the map. It is crazy. The map is a challenge as is. This kind of map is not as much fun hidden as revealed.

 

[Magic_gorter]

The labyrinth is not very easy but not very hard too. And I guess Ali is right with his comment...

I might make another labyrinth in the future which is even harder to play....

 

[Peaster]

Hmmm. Well, I am in the mood for a hard game, but Ali's message is clear, so I will probably look. Maybe just once, though. With my memory, that's almost like not looking at all. Thanks and good luck!

Edit: After peeking, I agree with Ali, though some eccentric players might enjoy wandering in the dark. For those brave souls, I'll conceal my pre-game plan a bit, but others may look:

Spoiler :

Clearly, the main goal is getting a settler to the grassy isles quickly. Two settlers would be better, but that seems impractical to me so far. I estimate the East route (broad ice) and West route (maze) are roughly equivalent wrt speed, but prefer the maze because

* Going East requires a risky trireme leap (or seafaring /etc)
* By going West and building a well-placed canal-city, one can shorten the maze AND solve various other problems (support, Mfg) relatively quickly. Guessing 2 early canals is too much, not sure.
* Our capital should be able to send out a 2nd or 3rd flotilla, which would benefit more from the Western plan (canal-city) than the Eastern plan.

Misc rks: I expect to do the size-one trick once, but don't see much use for more than 2 early settlers. After that, I am unsure about production, but hope map-making arrives soon enough for a very early boat. I am still undecided about early hut-popping (excess units might create serious support problems, but nomads or gold could help quite a lot). Establishing the first grassy outpost(s), maybe amidst an AI civ, may also require some luck. The maze was crazy enough that I made one line of tiny notes, but with that in hand, I hope not to peek again after today.

Edit #2: Well, my notes were pretty worthless because the coordinates from the map editor don't match those in the game. So, I'm actually peeking a lot, and still not getting it 100% right!

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Magic, given that few will play to year +1, should we turn in just the last save?

 

[Magic_gorter]

Yes. Just the last save if you finish before 1 AD. I might ask for an extra save when checking the games but don't think that this is needed.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Results are up. You can find theme here.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Congratulations to Jokemaster for getting both the gold medal and the blue star. Welcome to Civ2 hall of fame.

 

[Magic_gorter]

I've updated the Hall of Fame.