GOTM 17 Pre-Game Discussion

[Harbourboy]

Yes - the manual placement of resources can often be very different to what you experience in normal games. Expect the unexpected!

 

[shyuhe]

did anybody else notice the 5 civs we're going against? It's low seas plus few enemies = lots of land to settle eventually. We can already see an island to the east so there will at least be some island hopping that can be done pre-astronomy. Scout W-NW for me before deciding where to settle. 1 bonus food source is a pretty crummy start location.

 

[ImperialGuard]

Welcome!

The staff presents details that are available once you open the save, which usually is provided on the first of every month (WOTM is 15th). You can find the details in the settings (I think it's the victory advisor / settings). Yes, the AI has access to these details, apart from your starting location There are some details that may not be published, such as options in the map type. This enable players to think about what strategy they want to persue.

The reason for providing this info is to engage players to discuss strategies, perhaps bring up rule questions and most important: for players to quarrel about the best initial settlement spot It's also useful for players to give some thought of where to move the scout.

The administrators add/remove/move resources and may also change the terrain. I have not detected any pattern. Sometimes it's best to settle on the inital spot, sometimes its a disaster. Take a look at the map, try to predict how large the city will become for certain tiles, if it will be food rich or hammer rich.

Goody Huts in the immediate vicinity are removed as well. One reason is to reduce the chance in the early stages of the game. One other reason is to reduce the temptation for players to reload the game and alter their actions (which is strictly forbidden).

Good luck!

Excellent points ... thankyou Erkon!

I'm enjoying reading these Pre-Game discussions, I've gleaned a few good ideas already


And I'm going to need Good Luck in GOTM/WOTM ... some of the GOTM players are unbelieveable how they get wins so quickly is beyond me

 

[ImperialGuard]

The resource icon's arrow always points to the equator.

I noticed that in Warlords, the Resource Icon's always point the same way, regardless of your position to the equator ... anyone else noticed that or is it just me

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

Anyone care to make up a test game?

 

[Vynd]

I noticed that in Warlords, the Resource Icon's always point the same way, regardless of your position to the equator ... anyone else noticed that or is it just me

This was a change implemented in Warlords.

 

[ChrisShaffer]

There look to be trees west of the 4.

 

[ainwood]

The administrators add/remove/move resources and may also change the terrain. I have not detected any pattern. Sometimes it's best to settle on the inital spot, sometimes its a disaster.

I do try to make it so that there is no massive benefit in going somewhere that cannot be reasonably forseen from the starting screenshot. I may make some good 'second city' locations, but in general, I try to avoid anything that gives the 25% of people that randomly choose to go one direction vs the other, a big advantage. May not be perfect in its execution, but this is the intent.

 

[LowtherCastle]

How about settling E? Pop10 gives you 20h base production in your capital!

Edit: Bottom line is that with rice as the only food resource, both the starting position and the plains hill are lousy locations, food poor, commerce scarce. The plains/hill doesn't even boast of a whole lot of hammers. To the S doesn't look promising either--no hammers. Scout W-NW reveals 9 tiles, if no more food resources, settler moves NW.

If ainwood didn't give us any more than 1 food resource per city, then he abviously advocates abolitionism...

 

[Vynd]

Am I misinterpreting something, or is the screenshot showing the production values for a bunch of black, unexplored, tiles to the east and northeast?

If those values are accurate then they seem to indicate that the island does not extend any further east than we can see, although it might possibly run further north. You can also see that there are coastal tiles two away from any land that we know about, which implies another island or possibly that the island we are on snakes back around in that direction somehow.

 

[Sec]

Archipelago? I _love_ archipelago. Although I have never played it with low water level, I think I will try my usual "King of the sea" strategy

 

[slowrider]

Am I misinterpreting something, or is the screenshot showing the production values for a bunch of black, unexplored, tiles to the east and northeast?

That's a good point ... we are seeing tiles we shouldn't see. It looks like we are getting the vision that would be provided by a unit on the grasslands hill tile which is N, NE of the scout. Must be the invisible man ... that would be a better UU than our UUU (useless UU).

 

[Markus5]

So, what are some basic ideas to leverage the Aggressive and Philosophical traits?

 

[slowrider]

I do try to make it so that there is no massive benefit in going somewhere that cannot be reasonably forseen from the starting screenshot. I may make some good 'second city' locations, but in general, I try to avoid anything that gives the 25% of people that randomly choose to go one direction vs the other, a big advantage. May not be perfect in its execution, but this is the intent.

I suspected this was the thinking, hoped that it was and am glad to hear it said explicitly. Although it's a fair debate to have (whether moving significantly away from the original stating location should sometimes provide a material advantage), I am in complete agreement with Ainwood's intent as stated. I hope this is the general thinking for the WOTM games as well.

 

[slowrider]

So, what are some basic ideas to leverage the Aggressive and Philosophical traits?

If there's enough food, maybe build the Pryamids, run a specialist economy (with scientists), race to astromomy then crank up the military machine.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

If there's enough food, maybe build the Pryamids, run a specialist economy (with scientists), race to astromomy then crank up the military machine.

You usually don't need Astro with these settings, but you need to explore a lot if you want a conquest victory because crossings between the islands can be in strange places, like near the poles.

 

[kuukkeli]

Hmm... I guess there's an error in the Adventurer Class bonuses. Number one says "Player starts with knowledge of fishing" but Alexander already has that.

 

[slowrider]

You usually don't need Astro with these settings, but you need to explore a lot if you want a conquest victory because crossings between the islands can be in strange places, like near the poles.

You're right. I ran 10 test maps and found that you can almost always reach all the civs with gallys. Culture bridges should breach the gap for the few exceptions.

 

[ainwood]

Hmm... I guess there's an error in the Adventurer Class bonuses. Number one says "Player starts with knowledge of fishing" but Alexander already has that.

Thanks for pointing that out - I had a brain explosion, in that I had added it in to the save I made, so I saw what techs Alex had, but made the wrong assumption about which one I'd given him.

Adventurer class starts with the added tech of agriculture.

 

[Gyathaar]

You should prolly update what HOF mod version the game will use