GOTM 29 Pre-Game discussion - Saves now available!

[gozpel]

Interesting start with so many floodplains. I will probably move to the west to have those forests after expansion, both for early shields and then for chopping.

A warrior or two before a settler is a must, so I can explore the area and have at least a little comfort in the defense. Raging barbs won't make it easier.

I'm not sure on what to research first, quick on BW or horses, or 40 turns on Mysticism. I would like to get to IW fairly quick though to avaid the War-chariots and an early GA.

Let it begin

 

[civ_steve]

I'm glad to see the Egyptians back as the Gotm civ; they were my first submittal back in Gotm9 I figured we haven't seen them, nor the English or Germans in quite a while.

I'd be careful about doing much pop-rushing until the Luxury situation is figured out; with no Luxuries, the first pop-rush makes all citizens unhappy on Emperor, requiring MP's or commerce used as luxuries. (The exception is rushing the Temple, of course; this I plan to do a lot!)

I also am leaning towards this being more of a land game; scouting will determine this, of course. If so, I'll probably save money and depend on trades for technology, at least initially. Hope to get several good cities going and see from there. I might have more time this month, and see just how much war-mongering I can do, once built up.

 

[Rocinante]

Great looking start, lots of food but few shields. Probably research wheel first hoping to find some horses. There are worse things than an early GA. If I get an early GA I'll try to get a wonder or two. The Egyptians were never great sailors and I'm betting on pangea so I won't be going for Colossus or Great Lighthouse.

 

[mad-bax]

Hmmm... I don't like the look of the start particularly. At least it's wet. I'm trying to figure out how best to move the worker to decide where the settler goes. For once I doubt I'll settle on the spot. If I can find a position that enables me to work 2 forrest tiles I'll probably go for it.

Nice UU. Basically, cheap horses earlier in the game will probably mean I go for a military win.. conquest unless the map is awkward.

Tech is tricky as the wheel is a must and Japan may not even be in the game, let alone near us. But right now I'm thinking pottery at max and if I can trade for alpha I'll go for writing by turn 40-50. There doesn't seem much point saving lots of gold since I doubt I'll be upgrading anything.
This route is risky because I will have to rely on trading for the Wheel.

Because of the high food start and the industrious trait I'll probably build half a dozen workers specifically to road otherwise impassable terrain for the chariots.

If there are no horses this month I will not be a happy bunny.

 

[LeSphinx]

I'm wondering if with the UU (Chariot) You can manage a big war. As we play in Emperor level, the chariot is not a very good advantage against Spearman for exemple.

More of that, if you win a battle with your UU, you will start a golden age but as I would be the starting of your game, you will not probably take a good advantage of it. I've often have a golden age in the mid game.
What do you think?
LeSphinx

 

[bluebox]

After finally solving the transition to monarch level i am back to gotm again. i played gotm28 for myself, did not submit it because of several reloads to evaluate the outcomes of different stategies (i won a diplo victory in 1525AD with a firaxis score of 3769; calculator says 7489 jason score). but, as ainwood said: "enough of the spam".


for this month's gotm, i will intentionally aim for an early ga. i feel inspired by the sg set up by zwingli dojoboy mentioned in the speculation thread. the primary goal there was to build pyramids before anything else. two brief test games lead me to the following strategy:

build a few warriors and krank out a single settler (because it's emperor and not deity). then build pyramids either in the capital or the newly founded city; depends on which city has more potential shields.

scientifically, i will try to get to monarchy by trading while building pyramids. first tech to research will be mysticism at full expenses. when pyramids trigger ga (hopefully egypt is a monarchy then), i will use the benefits of the ga to build military and conquer the weakest neighbor by all means. after that expand from there with the pop boost of the granaries.

i am looking forward to use trade assist. see you at the spoilers.

 

[Karasu]

Hmm. Looking at War Chariots as cheap, early horses I'd really like to hoard a lot of them and keep 'em in store for a massive upgrade.
This means that I will shy from early wars, or possibly carry out small ones with Swordsmen if I meet an enemy civ close enough.

Of course, the actual game will probably have me build tons of Archers...

On tech, I'd like to head straight to MapMaking unless I cannot sea any water nearby. This probably means researching or trading for Pottery and ignoring the Wheel for some time.

Then again, after the first ten turns or so I will find myself researching Beer Brewing instead...

 

[mad-bax]

I would have thought you had put more than enough money into "researching" beer brewing already Karasu. It'll be interesting to see how you fare by delaying expansion until Chivalry. I also wonder about map making now. Is it as important as it was?

 

[zagnut]

Originally posted by mad-bax
I would have thought you had put more than enough money into "researching" beer brewing already Karasu. It'll be interesting to see how you fare by delaying expansion until Chivalry. I also wonder about map making now. Is it as important as it was?

I think it is. Map Making is now the only way for you to make contact with civs on other continents before discovering the Printing Press or Navigation. Map trading and contact trading are now delayed until the discovery of those techs. Therefore, you have to make contact the old fashioned way - by exploration.

Of course, sometimes you get lucky and the civs from the other continents discover you. However, I do not think it is wise to hope for that.

 

[Phillip_martin]

Originally posted by zagnut

Of course, sometimes you get lucky and the civs from the other continents discover you. However, I do not think it is wise to hope for that.

Unless of course, we discover that we can control the part of the world that links European, African and Asian civs to each other via say….. the middle east!

This would make an Emperor game a bit more fun, just like the lack of Iron made a Monarch game a bit more fun

 

[Karasu]

Hi there, Phillip!
Planning to play this one?

@MB - Yep, I did extensive research on Beer Brewing when I played the English and now with the Dutch on SP02.
I want to take advantage of GOTM29 to specialize in the remote origins of the product...

 

[RowAndLive]

I'm a little behind, having lost track of the date due to work requirements, but all of this scare talk about Xerxes has me wondering if this whole year will be an experiment in defeating Persia using different civs in different map configs! LOL!!!

I also see that there is a forest ESE that no one has mentioned. This is another good starting potential. We'll have to see.

Good luck All!