GOTM 34 Pre-Game Discussion

[denyd]

Secondly, the extra commerce is because you may choose to do a lot of research yourselves.

This could mean one of three things:
1. The game is at a lower level and we'll need to drive science
2. We are all alone on an island and will need to research our way off it
3. I've played too much Civ in the last 3 years and my brain is mush

 

[ainwood]

4.) you may choose not to to do a lot of research yourself.

Edit: It is a regent game.

 

[dmanakho]

Oh, we are jumping from really hard levels to the really easy ones.
Once don't we stay at monarch at all the times

 

[Sabre]

Well, I know I said in the GOTM33 final spoiler I would be skipping this month because of time issues but I just can't pass up a regent attempt at 5CC conquest so I'm going to give it a try. Hopefully I can make some quick progress.

I'll start by moving the scout south to the hill and the worker west. I like to make sure of my start spots given my limited city sites, so I may be moving the settler 1-3 turns. Hopefully with the scout I can make a quick decision. From the hill, my scout will head off west in search of my nearest target...er...neighbor. Here's hoping we aren't on a resource barren island all by ourselves!

 

[solenoozerec]

Secondly, the extra commerce is because you may choose to do a lot of research yourselves.
4.) you may choose not to to do a lot of research yourself.

So we are not on an island (we "...may choose not to do a lot of reserach..." ourselves...") , but other civilizations will be what?... stupid? (we "...may choose to do a lot of research..." ourselves).

 

[civ_steve]

At Regent level the AI gets no benefit in research or production (unlike higher levels). So you could be the research king (especially with all the extra commerce a river start gives you), or save your money. The AI doesn't challenge you as much in research at Regent level. (This game will not set any speed records for Spaceship Launch!) So ... yes, the other AI civs will be "stupid" (they prefer the term "slow" )

 

[Mauer]

Sounds like from the four corners for all again.

 

[alamo]

Ok, regent! No more complaints from the zulu basher!

Maybe I'll try the predator class.

 

[klarius]

Regent . Slow going tech.
But no need to ever build an Impi.
Golden age can easily be triggered by wonders.
Colossus or Lighthouse first and the GA coming with Leonardo's.
And don't build the Great Wall by accident

 

[Chimp]

I'm an idiot... good thing there's an edit function so I can get rid of the evidence...

 

[Rassnie]

Good thing I looked at your post again below the reply text box or I would have answered you.

 

[Hergrom]

Hmm. Zulus at Regent... Lots of rivers... I'm VERY tempted to try for a 20k victory here. I've never tried before, and I suppose a Regent game is the place to do it. Depending on neighbors, I may well go for an early GA, and in general do a lot of leader farming.

Opening moves: Not completeley decided. I guess it really depends on the geography near the body of water to the NE. The area looks potentially shield rich, but growth may be a problem. I will probably move the scout S to the hill and the worker E towards the body of water. I'm not too concerned about wasting a few turns finding the best opening city sites. I will not use the capital as the 20k city. I would love to have the 20k city on the body of water AND a river.

Good luck to everyone else!

Hergrom

 

[iqppfk]

Hey everybody.

I tried playing GOTM 33, but got a crash and couldn't finish it, so I hope this is the first GOTM I submit.

I might be making a newbie mistake and missing something, but all I remember ainwood saying is that it was an expansionistic, and if you look at the colors, The Iraquois are Expansionist and Match the Screenshot color.

What do you think? I might be wrong. Or maybe would like better to play with the Iraquois than the Zulu.

 

[Akane]

Hey everybody.

I tried playing GOTM 33, but got a crash and couldn't finish it, so I hope this is the first GOTM I submit.

I might be making a newbie mistake and missing something, but all I remember ainwood saying is that it was an expansionistic, and if you look at the colors, The Iraquois are Expansionist and Match the Screenshot color.

What do you think? I might be wrong. Or maybe would like better to play with the Iraquois than the Zulu.

It's definitely Zulu. Ainwood posted a while back:

Probably not.

zulu

Highlight the text (or even reply to Ainwood's post, #34 in this thread) and you'll find out that he already told us what the Civ will be.

Good luck nonetheless.

 

[iqppfk]

Ok, Zulu it is then.

After looking also at the Mini Map, I think we would need to move our expansion towards the NW so I would send the scout W-W to round the forest on NW and see if something interesting comes up.

If we are going to delay the GA and defend ourselves with Warriors I would take into consideration settling in place and take advantage of the defensive bonus from the river surrounding the Capital City that would apply to 6 squares.

What do you think?

 

[AlanH]

I've never been convinced that you need real defence in the early game ... or any time for that matter, so I don't buy the need fo defensive bonus for your capital.

Early on all you need is a warrior in your capital as token discouragement in case a civ wanders by and captures your undefended sole city (Matrix can provide a recent worked example ). While there's spare space for settlers they'll use that for expansion rather than attack you. You probably want to beat up any approaching barbs during the early game, but that's best done with active defenders like archers or horses outside your cities. If raging barbs are turned on the first real crunch comes with the era change uprising. Building a stack of defenders specifically to handle that event for a couple of turns never seemed a good use of resources to me. You can either take the opportunity to promote some attackers to elites, or just do a damage limitation exercise. It's often best just to let them pillage a small outlying town, making sure you've spent your cash on embassies or techs or whatever so that there's not much for them to take. Either way they are not going to get near your capital if you've built any kind of core around it.

 

[civ_steve]

Welcome to CFC and GOTM, iqppfk!! I hope your system doesn't crash and you are able to submit Gotm34!

I see AlanH has responded in the meantime. This is a Regent level game, so the AI wont have stacks of units lying around waiting for something to do. Early on I'd build and send scouts out, probably two more. Then a Warrior which wont go too far in case I need him. Settler after that for city number 2.

Don't know the Barb setting yet, but early on I'd leave at most a token defense to keep the AI from thinking too hard about attacking you, and to keep the barbs at bay. Later on, I usually take a more offensive appoach; and I generally NEVER build Spearmen; with Impi's as our spearman replacement UU, I might build one eventually to trigger a GA.

I like the nearby rivers, not for defense but for the extra commerce they generate. Movement will be tricky until Engineering is known.

 

[denyd]

Just a quick recap for the newcomers to the thread (and for us with bad memories)

Tribe: Zulu is Militaristic & Expansionist - UU = Impi (1-2-2) replaces Spearman
Starting Techs: Warrior Code & Pottery with cheaper barracks and more common promotions - also huts are never barbarians
Level: Regent
Location: SE corner of mini-map
Starting spot: With a pair of wines, quite a few rivers, a single visible BG to the SW and lots of plains N & NE, some kind of water to the west, hills & mountains to the SE

What we still don't know:
Map Type & Size
Land Percentage
Number of opponents
World Age & Condition

 

[iqppfk]

You're right about early game defense. Even if I don't go all the way down to NO spearmen, something I've been experimenting lately is have a spearman located 1 turn away from 2 cities. That way I can send him to protect any of them in case needed. This should be a lot easier with the movement value of the Impi.

I agree with civ_steve's production plan plus researching BW at max as long as we are in continents or pangea. If we're in islands, I would go straight to Granary, Warrior, Settler while I research Alphabet at 100% to get to MM ASAP.

And I still think about settling in place and put my first citizen to work in one of the vines, taking immediate advantage of the bonus tiles and all the commerce around the rivers. Worker would go NW-Mine-NE-Mine to fully exploit those tiles.

Do the experts have any other advise for a newbie?

 

[AlanH]

What we don't know:
Map Type & Size

From the scale of the minimap I'd say size is Standard, with Ainwood running a 1024 x 768 monitor, poor thing.