GOTM 176

[Inkerman]

View attachment GOTM_176.SAV



By kind permission of our normal game setter Ali_Ardavan, I invite the group to take on another composition. It is named for Catherine the Great, the renowned Russian Empress. And it's the default name for a Russian female leader in Civ2.

Civilization: Russia, 1 settler and 1 warrior.
Starting techs: Horseback riding, Mysticism, Chemistry.
Difficulty: King.
Total players: 7; Russians, Babylonians, French, Spanish, Persians, English, Mongols.
All start with 1 city or 1 settler, plus 1 or 2 military units.
Restarts: Off.
Barbs: Restless Tribes +25.
Map: 50x80 flat, artificial, unknown.

Deadline: Monday May 9th 2016. (edited 2nd March)

The map is Europe-like, with the Russian player starting in the east, but it is not a Europe map, and start-of-game cities are not placed accurately.

The map square (82,18) has a unique continent number.

Spanish have Bronze Working and Ceremonial Burial.
French have Alphabet.
Persians have Masonry and Trade, and have built Marco Polo's Embassy.
Mongols have Mapmaking.

Special Condition: There are 70-80 red barbarian cities already present but not visible.
In broad terms these are between you and everyone else except the Mongols.

You can eliminate the Mongols in your first turn if you wish, by moving your warrior into Karakorum. There is a Mongol pikeman and a horseman that will move into Karakorum in their turn, but before that happens, in your 4000BC turn, your warrior can enter and raze the walled city. You will take the skill of Mapmaking from them, but not all the map information they have (and they have a lot - they know about half the world.)

Or, in Classic, you can leave them alone this turn and on a later turn gift them technologies so that they agree to trade you their map information.
(I haven't been able to do this in MGE. Well I can do the leaving them alone, but getting the map information is a challenge.)

Notes.

It is intended that both conquest and spaceship are playable, although the game is probably particularly suitable for early military activity.

As usual with the compositions there are some early strategy decisions that I don't know the answer to and I expect you to enjoy thinking about.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Starting techs: Horseback riding, Mysticism, Chemistry.

Chemistry? That is really odd. Why a mid-game tech that offers no particular advantage?

Map: 50x80 flat, artificial, unknown.

I suppose you know the map since you designed the game. Are you not planning to play? Why not make the map known and join the competition?

Deadline: tba

I typically set it for a little over 2 months away. For this case I would have used May 9th. But feel free to set it as you see fit.

The map square (82,18) has a unique continent number.

Did you mean to say the starting square?

Special Condition: There are 70-80 red barbarian cities already present but not visible.

Wow! That is a lot of cities.

You can eliminate the Mongols in your first turn if you wish, ... You will take the skill of Mapmaking from them, but not all the map information they have (and they have a lot - they know about half the world.)

Interesting dilemma. Care to elaborate why you created this dilemma?

Or, in Classic, ... trade you their map information.
(I haven't been able to do this in MGE.)

Everyone is welcome to use the patch that brings diplomacy back to MGE.

 

[Jokemaster]

Everyone is welcome to use the patch that brings diplomacy back to MGE

Spolier alert: some patches do mess up the FindCity function and give a <nil> difficulty rating. Better than the other patch not working at all.

Rough terrain. So far I'm leaning towards conquering Karakorum since I'll need all the production power I can get to build enough cities to fund an army... or an army of diplomats (whatever works best) Kinda scared that I won't have enough space to expand (and later on not enough might to conquer). I'm thinking of playing an unusual game: I'm actually going to build Oracle instead of skipping it, since I will most likely be focusing on raw pop first despite poor ground (can't just spam settlers to keep cities in order). Will probably end earlyish, but will not have the means to focus on science w/o overseas van sites+poor trade specials (the one site requires too much investment) so it means 70% taxes after Poly/Writing, and probably never Theo. Just don't feel like landing on that kind of map tbh.

Random question: If I conquer Karakorum before building my first city, will Karakorum have a palace?

 

[Inkerman]

I suppose you know the map since you designed the game. Are you not planning to play? Why not make the map known and join the competition?

GotM has been kind enough to allow me a few compositions, most recently GotM169. I have a good record of joining in and not playing very well.

You can eliminate the Mongols in your first turn if you wish. Interesting dilemma. Care to elaborate why you created this dilemma?

Most of us enjoy a known map game from time to time, but like managing exploration in games too. I think when this was discussed some time back we learnt that players agreed with that. But we also learnt there were players who had a preference for or against known map, sufficient that it might influence whether they chose to play or not. So I thought I would give the choice. Of course you can choose on what you think will work best. Equally you can make up your mind first, and then maybe, like some business decisions, justify the decision later.

Assuming a conquest game, I see the tradeoff as gaining the information, but at the cost of having the Mongols' company, and having to conquer them later.

I imagine if there are any spaceship players they will of course want to keep the Mongols, will want to get Mapmaking soon, and may well decide to swap maps early.

Chemistry? That is really odd. Why a mid-game tech that offers no particular advantage?

In honour of Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist, and the periodic table of which he is said to have said:

I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required.

 

[Inkerman]

Jokemaster's note that some, perhaps anyone using a reasonably new computer, may be playing without "Find City", suggests two more notes.

At the start "Find City" does not list Constantinople, despite it having a wonder (Marco Polo Embassy.)

The Mongol map does not include the location of Constantinople.

Players may choose to hazard a guess (as we say here) as to the city's location.

 

[Jokemaster]

Update: Swapping to a localdisk version of MGE w/no AI patch (64bit only) does give me a functioning Find City. Just lettin' ya know.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Results are up.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Impressive green star and well deserved gold for Grigor. Great job.

 

[grigor]

This was one of my most enjoyable results. Thanks!

 

[Major Advantage]

This was one of my least enjoyable results.
I remember having kept the Mongols for too long (there is no point in having a key civ when there is no point in doing science anymore) and on of their settlers slipped by, founded a city on tundra and it took me a lot of turns to get there.