GOTM 123 - Hatty, Emperor - Starts 20 March

[DynamicSpirit]

GOTM 123: Hatty of Egypt.

This month you play as Hatty, and because it's a small Oasis map, you get to enjoy rushing everyone with war chariots to get a BC conquest victory. Well, at least you would have done if the cruel, evil, mapmaker hadn't stranded you on a tiny island. And before you ask, no there are no horses on the island. Sorry. Mapmakers can be so mean sometimes. That's life...

Game settings:
Playing as: Hatty of Egypt
Rivals: 4 AIs
Difficulty: Emperor
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: None
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Oasis
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium


Hatty is Spiritual and Creative, and you start with The Wheel and Agriculture.

The Spiritual trait gives no anarchy and double production speed of Temple

The Creative trait gives +2 culture/city each turn and double production speed of Colosseum and Theatre

Unique unit: War Chariot (replaces Chariot)
The War Chariot benefits from: base strength = 5, and immune to first strikes. This compares with the Chariot which has: base strength = 4, and not immune to first strikes.


Starting screenshot

This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):




To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 20 Mar 2016, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 20 Apr 2016.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the HOF mod version 1.74.004 installed. You can download the HOF mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

If you have not installed BtS, you will need to update the relevant DLL files in order to match the Locked Assets checks. These are available here.**

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the Mac HOF mod version 1.74.002 installed. You can download the Mac HOF mod here.

While playing...

Remember - for your entry to be accepted, it MUST be your first attempt to play this game, and you MUST NOT replay any turns. If you make a mistake while playing, you have to live with it, learn from it, and carry on the game without replaying.

We will open 'spoiler' threads during the month for players to discuss what happens in their games. Do not discuss any details of your game outside those threads.

 

[Deckhand]

Hatty has crabs.

 

[Deckhand]

SIP looks good: Fish, hills, forests, fresh water.
Or probably 1W for the plains hill. Lose fresh water but gain a seafood. Faster boats, workers and settlers.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Settling in place may give you trouble with the rule that prevents you from settling a City within 2 squares of another City on the same landmass, assuming that you don't want to settle on top of the Fur.

If we're not settling to get the G Wheat in our capital, the choice is between 1W on the PH For or 2W on the Plains square.

1W allows for a decent second City settled on the Plains square which is 1N of the G Wheat, that has Crab, Wheat, and Fur.

2W allows us to settle our second City on the Grassland square that is 1W of the G Wheat, picking up an extra Crab in our second City.

The other decent approach is to settle the capital next to the Wheat in the opposite configuration, picking one of the above two choices for our capital.


We start with Agriculture but not Fishing. Settling by the Wheat allows us to start off by building a Worker, then probably going Fishing -> Hunting -> Bronze Working to Whip some Workboats and to try to find Copper, since we know that we don't have Horse. Hunting would be for the Worker, to give it a second Resource to improve, making the investment in a Worker more worthwhile.

Grassland Wheat is similar to Grassland Corn (normally, we see Wheat on a Plains square) and thus it's a decent square to use for Whipping, due to getting +1 Food and -1 Hammer relative to a Plains Wheat square, especially in combination with the Fur's +1 Happiness.


If you settle on the PH For square, you can quickly build... what? A Warrior that can't go anywhere? A Worker that you can't really use? A Settler... maybe, but that's an inefficient build item so early on when there are so many Resources to improve. You can't work a Coast square without knowing Fishing, so you'd probably unintuitively work the G Riv square if doing so got you to Fishing 1 turn sooner.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Settle wheat-1W. More commerce, faster research, +1 for whipping.

 

[Deckhand]

Settle wheat-1W. More commerce, faster research, +1 for whipping.

And looks like two flood plains to the south.

 

[Nials]

I like 1W of the Wheat with the second city going 2W of where the Settler is located on T1. It also benefits from starting with Agriculture. Fishing needs to be researched ASAP.

This arrangement allows for a third city to be crammed in 1NE of the Settler's current location, too, but that's for a bit later down the road.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Spoiler threads are now up!