Gotm 82

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Game of the Month #82 (November 2007)

The game settings
Civilization: Germans
Map: Large; six civs
Difficulty: King
Barbarians: Restless Tribes
Restarts: On

No Huts

Starting location:
http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/gotm_games/GOTM82.jpg

Starting Techs:
~ None

Games will be due on December 8th, 2007.

Saved Game:
http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/civ2gotmdownload_82.shtml

Please be sure to follow the submission guidelines when submitting your game.

 

[Banach]

I'm actually going to play this GOTM. I've said that I would play ones before, but I've always let time get the better of me. Since I fancy myself more of a landing player, I'm going to play for an early landing, even though I'm not very skilled (my best Deity/7 landing is in the early 1800s). I'm sure I can do much better on king. I rarely play large maps, so I'm going to have to do some thinking. I seem to remember people saying that an SSC was not enough to sustain advances on a large map. Although I'm not a master of democracy, hopefully I can get a landing date before 1500 AD. I'll be happy to play on King as well. King seems so easy after playing Deity so much - You just don't have to worry about unhappiness nearly as much. I'll have plenty of time to play as well since I'm recovering from a Tonsillectomy.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Welcome Banach. Looking forward to seeing you in the game.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Given the lack of huts and the significant amount of grassland it is amazing that there are only 3 possible seeds, all from the same family (1,33,49).
The starting location is one special. The swamp to the SW is 2 special with the other special on land. 3 tiles NE is a 3 special on land (one special on land, the other on sea). The closest 4 special is 4 tiles away (mostly west) with all 4 specials on land and no ocean access. There is another 3 special on land 4 tiles away (mostly SW).

For OCC, the starting position is less than desirable: only one special, 5 swamps, and 2 land tiles on another island. The whale and the rivers are nice but not good enough. The 2 special location SW is ignorable, whether playing OCC or not, due to it being on a swamp. The 4 special location west is unsuitable for OCC because it is land-locked. That just leaves the two 3-special locations which have ocean access. The only risk there is the type of the tile being unknown. If it is grass or plains, it is superior to the starting location. If it is anything else, we may as well have stayed at the starting location although one may still find a possible 2 special a tile away but now we are talking about losing a lot of turns for a small gain in location.

 

[CharlieChuck]

I'm in two minds what sort of game to play this month. I did an OCC last month, so I don't fancy doing one again for a while. So it's either conquest or spaceship.

Having no huts will make both harder, although there's no real need to explore or make defensive units early on. I'm leaning towards spaceship, though if the terrain around the starting position is too swampy, I may switch to conquest.

Where to build the first city is another question mark.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

CharlieChuck, the biggest potential obstacle to playing an early landing game is that the missing civ (there are only 6) may be the purple one.

 

[Banach]

Ali, I agree with you from the standpoint that one may not get a great landing date. However, that still doesn't impede people from competing agianst each other for the best landing date from this start. I'm playing Early Landing on this, and I'll welcome a challenge from anyone who wants to see if they can land earlier than me. Note that I'm saying this never having landed before 1800 on Normal/Deity/Raging/7, so I'm not a great landing player, but I'll still welcome competition, especially since it seems a lot of people play for early conquest (Peaster, I'm looking at you), GOTM score (Starlifter, who can grow his empire faster than that decay term in the GOTM score), or OCC. I enjoy Early Landing even if I'm not great at it, and look forward to this, since I never play on large maps. I'm actually hoping that some others play for landing and post on here about it so that we can have a comparison of sorts. I'm gonna try as hard as I can to land prior to 1500 AD. I'm going to play very slowly and think thoroughly about every decision. I've spent the last day or two deciding where to build my first city by looking at the start. We'll see how I do by trying to Adapt Solo's guide to a large MAP, where I'll attempt to compensate for the increased beaker cost, large trade potential, and different number of cities. I'll keep a thorough Log and post a discussion of it on here.

 

[ccAMELS73]

Well, having played the last 2 gotm's and NOT finishing, I am more dedicated to finishing this one. I didn't finish the last one (81) because I tried early conquest and realized that just isnt my game, OCC is still a work in progress for me but I really like the way my game kind of fits that style....but I am not playing OCC this time (only 6 civs, and no huts turns me off of that strategy) so it looks like a landing game for me! To be more precise a high scoring landing game since only six civs, and large map will make early landing a little more difficult....but hey, I am still gonna try to do it as early as possible! so challenge accepted!

 

[Magic_gorter]

I'll try early landing as well. This month I have not much time because I go on holiday. Hopefully purple is in the game....otherwise it will be more difficult to get a good landing date.

I will soon try OCC with a GOTM but there must be any huts if I try. Practised OCC twice (lowest levels) and succeeded, but don't know if I can suceed on higher levels. At warlord I landed my ship just before 1100AD...and don't know if this is good score for an OCC-game.

 

[CharlieChuck]

I'll also take up the challenge and go for early landing. I hadn't noticed there were only 6 civs. I also didn't notice restarts were on, this would make conquest that bit harder and perhaps a bit frustrating. I Just hope the purple civ's there.

 

[Peaster]

Ali, I agree with you from the standpoint that one may not get a great landing date. However, that still doesn't impede people from competing agianst each other for the best landing date from this start ....... I'm going to play very slowly and think thoroughly about every decision. I've spent the last day or two deciding where to build my first city by looking at the start. We'll see how I do by trying to Adapt Solo's guide to a large MAP, where I'll attempt to compensate for the increased beaker cost, large trade potential, and different number of cities. I'll keep a thorough Log and post a discussion of it on here.

Good attitude!

BTW - Solo's guide is a great aid, but I'm told that he was interested in a "lean" approach to early landing. Some players have been able to land faster via ICS growth (and massive trade, an SSC is optional). I think that's a simpler overall plan and it should work well on a big map. Disclaimer: I don't play EL.

Not sure I'll play this GOTM yet. I'm kinda busy, and more obsessed with primitive conquest at the moment.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I am still too busy to attempt anything but an OCC.

 

[Banach]

I'm glad that others are interested in a landing. Since I don't play large maps very often, I played a practice game from a random start, king/large map/restless. Playing very lazily, I was very happy with my results (1235 AD landing), so I think I can get an excellent landing date. I look forward to comparing notes with others after I play through this game. I've changed my goal - I'm now shooting for a pre-1000 AD landing, which I think I can do because I wasn't paying much attention to details in my lazy game. I learned some things too, and I have some very good ideas to try now. I'll post after I get somewhere interesting in the game. I'm very excited about this, and trying some new ideas. No rush quite like a 2000 gold delivery bonus!