GOTM 42: Pre-Game Discussion

[eldar]

So, exactly how many Warriors does it take to kill a Numidean Mercinary in a city on a hill?

I'm not going to find out, I'll be sending Archers, Spears, and Cats! I know how many Horses it takes to do a similar job (COTM35) though.

 

[Abegweit]

I'm going to wait for the save before making any final decisions; I find fog-gazing easier with an actual map. This being said, it seems logical to move both the settler and worker north, carefully choosing the route so as to avoid wasting valuable towels Then the worker would probably move one further north before making a decision.

 

[Tubby Rower]

After thinking about this instead of doing actual work, I'm planning on moving Northish. Due to the Hitchhiker's reference noted by Alan, I think that there is probably some nice territory just outside of our view. Now I'm hoping that the direction I chose will not be incorrect.

What sort of terrain is iron on just mountains & hills?

 

[tR1cKy]

YAYYYYYYYYY!
Rome, high difficult level, crappy start... absolutely worth playing!

 

[k-a-bob]

YAYYYYYYYYY!
Rome, high difficult level, crappy start... absolutely worth playing!

No fair! tR1cKy has an unfair advantage!!!

 

[budweiser]

I am going to pursue a 100K. I don't think the legion can conquer the world. I'll just use it to get a ton of land. I'm betting iron will be close enough, say 8 or 9 tiles away.

I think a granary is crucial. I am going to settle 1 NW (I like the idea about consuming desert). I am going to do pottery at 100 and chop those trees for a granary. BW and IW will be next, maybe I can trade for it. Then go for republic. The new cities will do barracks and archers/or warriors. I hope an early war can score a leader.

I'll pack in cities at space 3 and then see where the iron is. More cities will give more gold as rome is commercial. More cities should give an edge toward republic and I will try to get that before unleashing the legions. Archer/cats/spears should be good for any early war.

Once my republic is set, I will try and shut down science and win the game before the end of the second age.

So I will try many cities, war for room, rebublic in MA to cash rush culture. It will be oscillating war to maximise the leader potential.

 

[denyd]

As most of you know the new Star War movie is due out during GOTM 42 and one of the trademark lines of the series is "I've got a bad feeling about this", well as I was driving to work this morning I thought about in all the Civ games that I played either solo, XOTM or SG, I've never won a game as Rome. This start plus nasty barbarians plus emperor, means I've got a bad feeling about this.

On a more serious not, I'm going to plant my capital somewhere to the north, moving NW & N then worker to the hill NE to seek a better location for the capital, if none is found then I'll settle on those trees. I'll have access to fresh water at least one forest to chop and a luxury nearby. Research for me has to be writing to literature for the Great Library. I'm thinking with the lack of rivers and the lack of related commerce, will make research slow, so that would be a big bonus to allow me to collect some cash for warriror->legionaire upgrading.

 

[tR1cKy]

No fair! tR1cKy has an unfair advantage!!!

Don't say it - the startpoint may be not so bad as it looks like
Probably settling in the hill 2 tiles north is worth the 3 turns waste. City on hill, lake tiles to exploit and at least 2 forest tiles to chop in order to speed up the settler. Then, at this level, the wines are too important to be missed.

 

[Xerol]

With only 20k and Diplo left (as well as lowest base score) on my collection of the shield awards, and 20k probably better suited for a scientific civ, it looks like I'm going to be running for the UN this time. Plan is probably going to get to 25% during the middle or industrial age, using the AA only to build a strong core which will fuel research.

As far as this start goes, settle in place and immediately begin a settler; use the worker to build a road toward the wines and also be exploring. After the initial settler the capital is probably going to just build warriors and workers. (From my calculations, a 20-turn settler is possible - +10 shields during size 1, +20 during size 2(while working the wines)). Research will probably be headed straight for republic, max rate on Alphabet and Writing then 40 turn on the rest(or trading). Basically, I'd have the settler out on the very first turn possible (even with moving the movement would take away from any food advantage you might be able to find, barring flood plain/wheat. But we had that last month, so I doubt it'll come around again). The desert's probably small with a large lake to the south(possibly not freshwater). Since the capital isn't going to be working any land tiles until size 2, I'm going to move the worker right to the wines and start roading backwards, getting the early exploration from that.

 

[solenoozerec]

Once my republic is set, I will try and shut down science and win the game before the end of the second age.

Welcome to AAC -

I will consider it too, although I do suspect that this game may not be suitable fo AAC. GOTM41 was good for that, so I do not expect two such games in a raw. It is not Pangaea and it is 70% water, we might need to research something to get to another contient.

 

[Abegweit]

@Xerol

Don't you want a warrior or two as well?? To find your second city site, if nothing else?

 

[budweiser]

solenoozerec- I am not going to try and conquer the world. I am going to try and buy my way to 100K before the end of the second age using legions to carve out space for settlements and my commercial trait to make a ton of money. I'll leave the second continent alone except to try and get money from them.

 

[Mad2rix]

If this GOTM is Diety level, then some players might remind of this game as Rome vs. Barbarians MK III from Realm Beyond Civilization.

 

[Jonesy10]

I don't get it . Does the towel represent something? Why do I need my towel? Do we have a long way to trek? Maybe good land is far away? Maybe our enemies are far away?

Maybe the towel refers to all the water (70%). I guess there will be a lot of beaches around this world.

Perhaps it means this game will be a nice leisurly game where you can ease back on a beach towel and automate everything so you can sip on your soda pop! Not much chance of this I suspect.

 

[Iver-P]

I created a practice .sav based on what we see in the GOTM-42 pre-game announcement. Is it legal to upload it here?

 

[Xerol]

I'm 99.99% sure I'm going to want to settle around the wines, if not to just secure them from another civ's size 1 radius, and it looks like the best terrain is going to be in that direction as well. In either case, the wine hill would make a good tile to use as part of even a slow settler/combo pump - 2/2/2 on any tile ain't bad and I'd just need to mine it. Plus it captures more hills/mountains in my territory making iron more likely to be within my territory once it shows up. When the worker gets to the hill he'll reveal enough north to see whatever I'd need to know for a city location around there.

 

[Xevious]

Ainwood wrote:
GOTM 42: Have you all got your towels?

As AlanH has already noted, this is a refence to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But it has more than one reference. AlanH has quoted a passage pertaining to the towel. Here's one pertaining to the particular game number:

...
For instance, a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings once built themselves a gigantic supercomputer called Deep Thought to calculate once and for all the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
For seven and a half million years, Deep Thought computed and calculated, and in the end announced that the answer was in fact Forty-two--and so another, even bigger, computer had to be built to find out what the actual question was.
And this computer, which was called Earth, was so large that it was frequently mistaken for a planet--especially by the strange apelike beings who roamed its surface, totally unaware that they were simply part of a gigantic computer program.
...

Douglas Adams, rest his soul, had a unique sense of humor and wit. If have not read any of his books, I urge you to at least read The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. If you enjoy that, follow up with So Long and Thanks for All the Fish; Life, The Universe, and Everything; and The Restaurant at the end of the Universe.

Don't Panic!

 

[Tubby Rower]

Fog-gazing....To the north of the lake is all hills. That means that the ease of working those tiles are bad. I think that I'm either going to settle 1NW or 1SE.

 

[AlanH]

But it has more than one reference. AlanH has quoted a passage pertaining to the towel. Here's one pertaining to the particular game number:

Well spotted, I did provide a clue in my previous post. I wondered how long the penny would take to drop I'm surprised how few players here seem to have read the great works of Mr Adams. He was also an Apple Macintosh fan

 

[ControlFreak]

Fog-gazing....To the north of the lake is all hills. That means that the ease of working those tiles are bad. I think that I'm either going to settle 1NW or 1SE.

Tubby, 1SE has the same problems as 1N. You need a towel.