[PTW] GOTM 172 Japan Deity - Pre-game Discussion

[Più Freddo]

GOTM172 Shogun Tokugawa of Japan

In game number 172 of the classic game of the month series, you will rule as Shogun Tokugawa over Japan, a Religious and Militaristic civilization which starts the game with the knowledge of Ceremonial Burial and The Wheel. This is a Deity game with no sponsored victory condition. The Japanese unique unit is the Samurai, a Knight which can be built without access to Horses, and which has a stronger defence.

As an innovation suggested by templar_x, I have placed an outpost near the starting location. Lets call it the Sky Tree. It has the effect that we can see a larger portion of the map. The purpose is to allow a more informed pre-game discussion.

This is your starting position:

We continue to use a modified form of the standard PTW scenario, and although no bugs have been reported in some time, it is possible that play testing has not been exhaustive. Any in-game event or behaviour that a player feels is unintended should be reported to the GOTM staff immediately.

Scope of the Game:

Civilization|Japan
Difficulty|Deity
Map size|Standard, 100x100 Tiles
Map topology|Archipelago, 3 billion years
Climate|Normal, Temperate
Rivals|7 AI Tribes
Barbarians|Roaming
Required victory condition|None
Submissions due by 9 January 2019 |PLEASE NOTE THE DATE

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Game release page The game is relased on 28 November 2018.

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The GOTM series of friendly competitions is a community effort.
Please feel free to volunteer to design a game!
Send a PM to Più Freddo.

 

[Cotta]

Easy.

Which is the best winning strategy? If this archipel is nearly big enough 20k for example.

Edit: 100.000k of course. Maybe both of it?

 

[supersova_SU]

Start of the best.
Not beast.)))

 

[CKS]

Unless all the AI are isolated, I think I'll be hoping for a diplomatic victory. I'm going to try to use the cows to expand quickly enough to populate my island before the AI start building on it. (Unless someone else shares the island, in which case I'm looking at an early exit from the game.) The three cows and a horse on the river spot looks nice for 20k; if there is a manageable invasion I could hope for a leader or two.

I'm not going to go invading anyone without a covering army, so I'll want to expand as fast as I can. If I can get some cities on other islands, that will be great, but usually I struggle to fill my own island in time.

 

[templar_x]

if I manage to play, THIS TIME I will for once remember: PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RCP,PtW is the one with RC...
having said this, to myself, a few times , I have to notice that foundation of the capital in place seems to offer a very nice distance-3 ring around the capital, doesn´t it? and if I am not mistaken, there are TWO potential 1t-worker or 2t-settler factories possible in a GA! not that I would imagine we have so much room to settle... but just saying.
t_x

 

[templar_x]

ok, I opened the save in the game, just because i seem to get a better feeling this way. i may go for 8 first ring towns here. doesn't look like a 20k start to me. 100k on archipelago on Deity? maybe another day. most probably no science game either, with only 2 SCIs in the game. so most probably the military path, as usual. probably wont be able to play anway, but I may try a spreadsheet after a long time whether granary first may be good enough.
t_x

 

[Lanzelot]

According to your "rule of thumb", however, the settler first approach would be better in this situation, wouldn't it? I'm quite curious, what the spreadsheet says about this...

 

[templar_x]

obviously, yes. if there is so much food around, settler first usually is clearly stronger. but more hassle. so i may skip it here, if i can get the gran up alright.
t_x

 

[Più Freddo]

How does this rule of thumb go?

 

[templar_x]

lots of visible+easily usable food around for a 2nd town = settler first

of course it is not always as simple as that. it depends on land form, difficulty level, desired VC, how many tiles for the capital must be improved to get it working, etc. but of course, a 2nd town plopped down earlier is a strong contributor of everything, and even more so if it also has excess food.

at second thought i realized that "granary first" won´t be easy if possible at all here anyway, because no pottery, no pre-build and probably research not fast enough. thus, either meet an AI or settler first here. a 2nd town is a good idea anyway with Deity barbs...

t_x

 

[Captain_Jack]

Hello. I have played many games of Civilization, but never very well. Still, I really do enjoy it. I am going to try to download this game, play it, and post my results. I will consider it a success if I do that. I do not expect my performance in the game to be good in any way relative to the other contestants. I have difficulty winning on Warlord.
There was a discussion earlier about what difficulty levels the games should be. I like the idea of a range. I played one game on Deity and was shocked that the AI swarmed me with hostile units almost immediately and destroyed my fledgling civilization before history took any notice.

 

[Più Freddo]

Hi Captain Jack and welcome to the friendly Game of the Month competition!

Of course, we all compete mainly against ourselves and try to better our gameplay from one game to the other. What this public contest adds is, in my humble opinion, for the one a benchmark against which this personal improvement can be gauged, and for the other the opportunity to talk about and discuss the games, its possibilities, the mistakes made, the glories won and so forth. So please join our very exclusive little club. Don't be shy and don't be silent. And if time runs out, you can also submit an unfinished game just to let us know that you are there.

Next year, the games will be longer and fewer with two parallel games, one of each extension pack variant, running each quarter and a Heptathlon competition (seven different victory conditions) overlaid on the eight individual matches.

 

[Captain_Jack]

Thank you for the welcome!
My Japanese hoards are eager to settle the lands in Game #172. My plan is this:
> settle at the starting location, then build one city upstream and one downstream, both on the river
> the downstream city will be on the ocean
> build temples early and strive for high culture
> build fourth city and later towards iron when it is identified
> attack no one, pay tribute within reason, but defend vigorously against attacks and hope for an army

My goal is to survive as long as possible.

 

[jarred!]

Steam installation doesn't include ptw? I had to find my old gold edition disks, so now I'm eligible for the game, but probably too late for the pregame discussion.
I don't play on diety, it scares me. I understand that higher level starts generally have bonuses to make them easier (quite a few evident in the screenshot!), So I'll give this game a go.

According to your "rule of thumb", however, the settler first approach would be better in this situation, wouldn't it? I'm quite curious, what the spreadsheet says about this...

According to my math...(I should be double-checked) warrior-settler completes two turns later than just settler. So I favor warrior-settler due to roaming barbs. And then build a worker before a granary? I'm more concerned about getting all the high food tiles improved and having enough warriors to defend (and attack) against the barbs. But, I'm not comfortable on diety, so I'm probably just gunshy.

 

[Lanzelot]

Hi jarred!, when we say "settler first", it doesn't necessarily mean that the settler is the first thing we build. A few warriors for scouting and defense are usually a good idea. It just means "build a settler before the granary", while "granary first" means to build settlers only after a granary is finished.

 

[Captain_Jack]

I tried to download the game, but it didn't work. I am playing the game on Steam. I don't have the discs any longer and I don't think they are even sold anymore. Can I still do this through Steam?

 

[jarred!]

You can participate in the cotm. We're currently playing cotm 144 (Russia, monarch).
I was using the steam version, but found that ptw was not included. This could be due to a botched install, but I fear steam does not include ptw.
Look for the game here:
.../steam/steamapps/common/Civilization 3 Compete/Civ 3 PTW
The ellipsis is wherever you installed steam, the default is C:/program files (x86)

 

[Captain_Jack]

Thanks. I will try again this week. I need to use my work computer, so I only have access on off-times, etc.... I never had any luck getting Steam onto my home Mac.

 

[tjs282]

I was using the steam version, but found that ptw was not included. This could be due to a botched install, but I fear steam does not include ptw.

No, your install is not botched, at least not by you nor Steam.

At least 3 downloadable-sources of Civ3InComplete do not include the PTW executable (Civilization3X.exe): the package(s) from GamersGate (and later GOG) didn't/don't have it either (I re-bought it on sale from GOG in early 2017, just to check that). I wrote to GamersGate about this a couple of years back, and was told that they could only sell what Firaxis supplied them with.

So the install was 'botched' by Firaxis (who also included a copy-protected version of the vanilla civilization3.exe — and only in some packages — although to be fair this was also before Micro$oft disabled secdrv.sys on all post-XP Windows versions).

Ask us nicely, and we'll tell you how to deal with this...

 

[Captain_Jack]

I offer 200g, 4gpt, and Monarchy in exchange for Civ3PTW

(My advisor fears "They will be insulted by this offer.")