GOTM 44 Pre-Game Discussion

[pindicator]

Thank goodness. A little bit of light playing to throw inbetween my bouts of trying to catch up to the Diety-level AIs in GOTM13.

Too many people will go for 20K win for me to want to do it. Probably go for a space age / diplo win to exercise the builder in me. He hasn't gotten out to play much lately, with all the military pressure in the GOTM...

Oh, opening sequence... Worker will go west. If it's a freshwater lake then I'll settle 1NW to get a settler farm up and running. If not a freshwater lake, then I'll probably settle on spot, but don't know for sure yet.

Raging barbs... I bet we got about twenty barbs waiting just offscreen, custom-like ya know?

 

[azzaman333]

ill have to try this one, its warlord. as it seem most want diplo/culture wins, i want to conquer the world, even if im on ssome midgit snow island in the middle of nowhere. who knows, i could actually be bothered finishing this!

 

[Tesuji]

OK, I have some newbie questions:
- Is there any place where I can read up on how GOTM works?
- Do I need some mod-pack to join?
- When does it start?

Am I right that GOTM is a preset game where everybody gets the same start and we can compare how we are doing in relation to other players? I think that's very cool, as it's probably the best way to learn from good players.

 

[a space oddity]

Welcome to GotM, Tesuji.

- Is there any place where I can read up on how GOTM works?

http://gotm.civfanatics.net

- Do I need some mod-pack to join?

Not if you're playing C3C, you can read all about on the gotm site if you use the link.

- When does it start?

The CotM games start at the first of each month, Classic games start the 15th.

 

[AlanH]

Am I right that GOTM is a preset game where everybody gets the same start and we can compare how we are doing in relation to other players? I think that's very cool, as it's probably the best way to learn from good players.

That's exactly right.

Not if you're playing C3C, you can read all about on the gotm site if you use the link.

If you have Conquests then the COTMs play using your out-of-the-box installation. You should play Classic GOTMs using the Play the World option installed with Conquests. They then generally don't need any mods. The current GOTM 43 is a rare exception, and it only required a small graphics mod pack.

 

[solenoozerec]

Here's a radical thought -- maybe it really is designed to be easy, and ainwood's just seeing how many people can manage conquest before the ADs.
Renata

I second this opinion. I need a rest after those deity games and I will assume that this game is a chance to set a new conquest/domination records and I will play AAC, open or predator depending on bonuses.
I plan to play COTM13 very fast without micromanagment and QSC log. It will give me a chance to loose it fast and save time for this one.

 

[budweiser]

This difficulty level is very bad guys. I have been playing a few practice games. In my last game the AI had on average 5 cities by 70AD and I had to gift them just about every ancient age tech. I think any strategy to do with tech is doomed to a very late finish. Go bowmen!

 

[ainwood]

First post updated with class equalisers / bonuses.

 

[eldar]

No techs for Predator

Though our starters are hardly expensive: CB is equal-cheapest, BW a little more so.

 

[budweiser]

CB and BW are not necessary. Pottery is and so is WC. I've been playing more at this level, the AI are totally useless so you have to do it all yourself and that means you need people. You want WC to build your bowmen early or else you will be in a situation where you can build nothing but warriors or spears (useless). I have a practice game going now where I am trying to conquer the world and bowmen are too slow and a bit under powered. Horesemen are preferreed, swordsmen are a bit more effective than bowmen (obviously).

After that you need mapmaking. Because the conquest class is getting alphabet, it may be a clue that we are isolated.

 

[Nata]

CB and BW are not necessary.

Not if going for 20K, which I'll probably do. Instant Temple, and then Colossus while researching next culture-bringing tech - starting without them is quite a challenge, especially if we are isolated.

But I learned an interesting thing: the real game-breaker for 20K game, the one which can get like 100 years off your date and let you finish in 16xx, is building Heroic Epic early, in BC, somewhere before 500BC.
Nothing else makes such a difference: I saw it when playing with Sir Pleb's 20K spreadsheet.

And the way to get a very early leader seems to be having very few troops, like 3 or 4, and getting exactly one elite out of them (from barbs), and then winning with this one elite, with no other wins before that. It almost certainly brings a leader: maybe it's a bug in Civ, but I saw it happening many times.

And if we are isolated it almost rules out this chance. So if we are isolated and with no barbs I'll probably abandon 20K: early temple and Colossus won't hurt if we are on a small island, the real expansion will start only after we are off the island, anyway.

 

[Xerol]

With raging barbs, if you leave one square of not-visible terrain, a hut's bound to pop up at some time or another. (Hopefully we have enough terrain on the island for this.)

 

[cas]

made a test scenario isolating the starting island with only what can be seen and a few tundra beyond the water to the nw...very small island. Put the 6 other civs on one continent...mixed them up with different starting techs/traits. The other civs all reached the MA on their own around 250BC-10AD...although none of them researched Lit, Monarch, or Republic...which I found odd. First Wonder by the AI civs was Pyramids (500BC or so) and the Oracle shortly thereafter. I built the Colossus by 1000BC...so maybe one of the AI's would have completed it earlier than 500BC.

I hope we have more room than my test scenario...so there can be at least 1-2 higher pop/production cities. It's hard to grow with lots-o-tundra until you get harbors. Also I packed in 5 cities, but it was too tight and hurt production.

Starting move will definitely be worker W and if there is more land visible and a fresh lake I will move the settler/capital inland with the second city as a settler factory next to the wheat. Second worker will also be a priority...because it takes a lot of time to bring irrigation to that wheat. Research path if we are alone will beeline map making most likely. If we have more room, it might be worthwhile to get pyramids. If the island is super small or going for 20K, I think 2-3 cities and colossus/republic asap would be the priority.

cas

edit: cleaned up the grammar and added research stuff thoughts.

 

[eldar]

Hmm. If we're super-isolated, and a very tiny island with no rivers, Colossus for the research boost alone will be needed. So BW will be missed, and it may be worthwhile researching it after Pottery->Alpha->Writing->Map Making.

Not sure about the Lighthouse though.

 

[DBear]

I really hope we're not isolated, already had 2 GotMs recently with isolated starts. I'm thinking we're on a long narrow peninsula crowded by a civ with a nasty defense unit--like Greece w/their hoplites. I did a test game with the Greeks as neighbors. We weren't isolated, but even cats were useless against them. It just took sheer numbers to wipe 'em out. And I'm betting we don't have iron around either, so no swords to go against them.

 

[ionimplant]

i am thinking about settling where we are and then palace jump later on once we have a large inland city with a ring set up. however very often i see that people or AI have their capitol beside the sea, which effectively decrease the number of 1st ring cities by two or three. why is that worthwhile?

 

[High King J.J.]

I just hope this one doesn't have the mediterranean resources, couldn't get them to work in the last gotm no matter what I tried. (Yes, I have installed all of the packs starting from gotm21 and played succesfully with the extra resources previously...)

At least I don't see any information about extra resources, but... warlord? I played one warlord game when I bought Civ3, couldn't find the endurance to finish even that (absolutely no challenge) really hope this is an isolated poor start (grin). And it's good to get new blood (players) to gotms. At least it's raging barbs...

 

[Shillen]

I played one warlord game when I bought Civ3, couldn't find the endurance to finish even that (absolutely no challenge) really hope this is an isolated poor start (grin). And it's good to get new blood (players) to gotms. At least it's raging barbs...

I actually prefer easier difficulty games. The challenge isn't to win, it's to win at an extremely early date and to play better than other people. The reason I prefer these type of games is because it leaves all the fun aspects of the game in and takes all the annoying aspects out. I also don't feel as pressured to use exploitive tactics which are within the rules, such as ROP rape, gifting away and recapturing the great library, palace jumps, buying techs with gpt and declaring war, etc. I don't like playing that way, but you almost need to on deity level. Warlord might be a bit too easy but I have no doubt I'll enjoy this game more than the last two deity games.

 

[Karasu]

Beware of Ainwood's "easy Warlord games" though...

...even though the British and Irish Lions have lost their last match

 

[eldar]

...even though the British and Irish Lions have lost their last match

A minor glitch, of course. Next time, we'll ask them to let us have the ball once in a while....

Um, back on topic, a think peninsula with nasty defensive units to get past (Greece, Carthage, Zulus...) would be more fun than total isolation, I think!

In that situation, I'd still go hard for Map Making. If you can't beat 'em, sail around 'em....