Gotm19-Ottomans Pre-Game Discussion

[Yndy]

I’m back after some days away. May will be a tough month for me in RL and I was hoping I would not miss a deity GOTM. Luckily, I will not and the map is small, that’s even better.
I’m hesitating between an OCC just to finish the game fast and an early conquest as the map is small. I’ll definitely move the warrior on the mountain but I don’t expect to find anything interesting over there so I’ll probably build on the starting spot. I want to get a settler asap, no way I will build a granary on a small map on emperor.
I’ll build one or two warriors to explore but main goal will be to find the best city spots asap and exploration will come only afterwards.
Frankly I do not expect to get more than 7 crowded cities before the other civs will settle the surrounding areas so I will found 2 extra cities and focus on military. I’ll probably build the 4th city only for unit support. I’ll get Iron working in 40 turns and I’ll probably need 10 to 20 turns to hook the iron and upgrade the warriors and I plan to have 10-15 of them. Then I’ll go for the neighboring civs that will hopefully still be in their expansion phase.

 

[Renata]

@ Yndy: You stole my plan! Now watch cracker will have contrived to have no iron in the neighborhood.

Renata

 

[Karasu]

Originally posted by Renata
Now watch cracker will have contrived to have no iron in the neighborhood.
Renata

That is a frightening -and likely- possibility. Note also that the Swordsmen upgrade path is finally enabled...

One could of course think of researching The Wheel and go for chariots - horsemen, but then again there may be no Horses around.

Or Warrior Code and go for a super-early Archers army. I have never tried this approach on a "large" scale -only made some early guerrilla in GOTM18... May be an idea...

 

[Hurricane]

I think the Swordsman upgrade path is turned on to give the AI even a small defense against our UU, which is extremely strong.

But as many have pointed out, by the time we get it, the best players will have completed their games. Of course, one strategy might be to try a very fast tech race, build some horsemen along the road, and do a mass upgrade to Sipahi. This is tricky, though, and I doubt I will try it. You really need a few early wars to grow, and maybe get a few leaders.

 

[jaheira]

I will play this GOTM? That will be my first game above Regent I did GOTM 17 for test purpose to see where my skills where and I am low.. I won UN vote, 19th century. I was far from 20K victory as I thought I would have (still town was 75 / turn).

SO I think I would try to look down south with "warrior" to check what is down. Not knowing emperor but I supposed it would be suicide to spend 1 or 2 turn for bonus land. I may not know the full potential of these for emperor. But I do think that if any are available somewhere north and don"t see it. The second city would then grab it.

About war and etc.. I am in a unknown zone as I never go for war -))) never manage to really accept not to research and built up army.. I am french maybe that is why )

Anyway, This game will be the first GOTM as I said and first emperor.. ouch.. so I understand first as well with Tech trade to come back in tech race (while in Regent I am always first ).. and Early war..
So I am jumping in the old QSC.. and thinks I will do it as well.
First time really where I will manage point by point my cities..
so see you guys (to find my name I beleive you will have to look at bottom of list .. on lost and early )

 

[LeSphinx]

Shillen, I think you are right :

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by LeSphinx
I hope the HTTP Page Jason Score Calculator will be up to date before the 1st May.
Seeing the the max score and the score for the different victory type allow to choose a strategy too.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't think they're going to be able to publish that before the end of the month. The Jason "best dates" are based on the type of landforms. But we don't know if it's continents, pangaea or archipelago. Now he could just leave that field blank or say "Mystery" but people who understand the formula would be able to calculate backwards and figure out what kind of landforms it is.

We will not know the top Jason score according to the different victory.

I post the images just in order to tell to everybody that in a small map at emperor level, BE CAREFULL by waiting by settle your first city ! Indeed, the other civs will expand very quickly and you will have less way of expending.

It was just a way to explain it. But I was not comparing the map as the one we will have it in 2 days! It is still a BIG MYSTERY and that is good.

My first moves will be the same than the ones described by SirPleb.
as we know we will be in the North West part of the map, expansion will have to be Est!

LeSphinx

 

[Ribannah]

Originally posted by LeSphinx
as we know we will be in the North West part of the map, expansion will have to be Est!

Since we can cross the dateline, starting west or east on the world map is irrelevant.

Edit: Sudden, horrifying thought: maybe crossing the dateline will be disabled on this mystery map!

 

[Ambiorix]

Originally posted by Ribannah


Edit: Sudden, horrifying thought: maybe crossing the dateline will be disabled on this mystery map!

... and North-South crossing ENabled ! That would be something...

 

[Karasu]

Originally posted by Ambiorix

... and North-South crossing ENabled ! That would be something...

North-South AND East-West: the torus world...

 

[Darkness]

Well, thank god it's emperor and not deity level. Now, maybe, I'll survive until the middle ages...

I agree wit Indy, granaries are useless on a small, crowded map on emperor level. I think our window of opporuninty for expansion will be very short, so I'll probably focus on military fairly early on. Like SirPleb I also plan to build very few (if any) temples and use libraries for culture boosting. we're scientific, after all...

I'll have to think about this some more, but I've got to finish GOTM18 first.....

 

[Ebomb808]

This looks like a fun challenge. Their seems to be alot of talk about granary's and to me on a small crowded emperor map, their is just no time. Military takes precendent over settler gain because the map will be filled in no time. If the world is C shaped or donut shaped, then the first strategy will be to cover a line with culture from one coast to the other to block rivals from crossing our trade route and stealing contacts. Iron working seems like the obvious beginning to the tech race.

Starting spot: I think it would be a wast of time to settle any where else but the starting spot. To lose valuable time for a food bonus that your second city could have instead doesnt make sense. Speed feels likes its going to be so important in this mystery game.

In small maps, luxuries seem to be concentrated in spots, hopefully i can secure a large set, start actively trading after my industrious workers form the first trade roads, then attack weak neighbors with a strong ai partner. Hopefully this will happen with swordsmen, but if iron is not available horsemen or archers will work. Land will fill fast and war will happen early and often.

Based on the description Trade seems like the most powerful tool to pick my opponets and allies and win the tech race, so securing luxuries and trade routes early will be my first priority then war.

 

[widdowmaker]

HEy all. I would like ot join in but what difficulty is it? (i cliked the link on main page and it has me auto reply. dunno why so i couldnt read the posts.) Forgive me typing but i am a bit tired right now.

Anyways. What are the settings?

 

[jack merchant]

small map of mystery configuration, emperor difficulty level - the scope of the game is in the other link on the main page.

 

[Ebomb808]

I started playing the last GOTM for my first play, but restarted during the game before i knew the rules and forfeited, but are all victory conditions equally scored using the Socring system? I cant wait to follow the rules this month and build my ranking!

 

[r0ck]

Hi fellows.


I will start this gotm 19 as my very first gotm. Been playing civ since ... 1994 (pretty much) and now have a good enough internet access to enjoy all this thrill.

Need some advice from you poobahs though:

a) Is it out already ? I got a download ( this one here : http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/gotm19_start_ptw.zip)

and was wondering if it is the game... I mean.. can i start playing this one or am i supposed to wait till may 1st so other game gets posted ? I figure that the save game says art test, so it must be just a test then, right ?


Also, if you go on this zip file, theres the readme.txt in wich you can read

" You may then download the starting save game file from the following internet address anytime after the 1st of April 2003.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/saves/gotm19_start_ptwv1_14.sav "

The point here is April First.

This date must be a typo from the previous file, then ?


Well tnx for any advices yopu can give me on this matter

Hugs n Lots of sun n Beer from Brazil

ps- We are probably buying the swede´s stealth fighters anyway (just to revive the old flame war)

 

[LeSphinx]

hello r0ck,

No, GOTM 19 is not already out. It will be on 1st May.

Right Now, you can discuss about the pre-game discussion.
We just talk about the first move players will make according to the scope of the game published by cracker.

Be carefull to read all the graphics/text installation needed for playing GOTM games. See readme and the good and precise detail given by cracker.

LeSphinx

 

[r0ck]

okey sphinx , thanx for the info.


My ideas are pretty much already said here.

Beeing industrious and scientific is a personal advantage for me, cause i play mainly as the persians, wich are indus and scie.

My points are:

worker goes BG, first road and then mine. Beeing industrious will lead the road in only 2 turns and scientific will boost the extra trade. Keep warrior moving and wait for building 2 warriors. I think that we can expect to be allowed to build just 7 cities, so better keep in mind Optimal City placement. That can be affected too due to tiny map, unleashing a big corruption after 9th city is built (warning fellow warmongers: capturing cities also count. )

After warrior is built, pop shall be 4 and we should keep the pop on this number using settlers untill we connect some luxury. Hope to have enough people to build temple and then ensure a contact blockade, as previously stated.


If map designer used culturally linked start location, we will have some nasty neighbours: rome, carthage, arabia, mongolia, persia greece and the germans.

Nasty indeed cause 3 of then are militaristic and are always eager to hand me my (insert precious bodily part in this space)


Well... 2 days to go and eager to jump in...

have been recently praticing Command and Conquer Generals GLA Accent for " slAy the iiiNNNfidelz" .. hope to sound ottomaneske enough... :- )

 

[Moonsinger]

Industrious and Scientific is my favorite for the Chieftain level or any level below Emperor. At Emperor and especially Deity level, I think Industrious and Militaristic are the best. Having a Scientific trait at this level is really a big waste since we can't really out research the AIs until we reach the Industrial Age and take control about half of the map. By now, we should be able to wipe out the rest of the AIs with cavalry. Other than the free tech for each era, the scientific civ get very little benefit at this level. Therefore, I intend to buy all my techs at this level.

 

[Karasu]

Ebomb,
the new scoring system is aiming just at that. You can find more in the old and in the new scoring system threads.

-------

I just read SirPleb's comments -I think he's going to be the first nominee for the "best advice of GOTM19"... :worshp:

With my limited skill, I am thinking of an aggressive start -which may end up in my choosing a militaristic kind of victory...
In this sense, I am considering two approaches.

1. Use warriors-swordsmen-Medieval Infantry, and try to slow down tech as much as possible. The advantage is that one already starts with warriors, and can therefore be ready for an early major war with Swords.
However, this approach relies too much on the availability of Iron close to the starting position. Failing this, there is the risk of falling too much behind in tech and finding oneself with a bunch of useless warriors and surrounded by ugly civs.
The most recent attempts on this approach in the Tournament were clearly beaten by a Horsemen rush (on a Tiny map...).

2. Go all the way towards Sipahi and therefore try to speed up (own) science. The "good" war would start a bit later on, with Horsemen vs. Spearmen (hoping we are not surrounded by Romans with Iron, Iroquois with Horses, Carthaginians, Greeks and 3.3.3 Panzer-barbs...). This approach is more flexible in leaving room for some initial Archers guerrilla, if neghbouring civs are really close (well, almost forces one to do that). I wouldn't go for the Longbow-Rambo upgrade though.

The way to go really depends on effective early exploration and contacts.
Initial research should follow the decided approach, but on the first turn one has to start somewhat blindly... Iron Working seems critical do decide where to go next, although The Wheel is often also good for trading and I would want to know where horses are.

Bah, let me get back to work now...

 

[OneFastWarrior]

Well, I really like all the advice I am getting here. I still have been playing most of my games on chieftan(only played for 7 months, and never bplayed civ or civ2) I think I am going to have to move all my new gamews up to warlord cause I have been learning alot by getting my butt kicked in the last 2 gotm's.

I think I will send my Warrior East to mountain on 1st move, I will settle the city at the start point and start a road then mine. I will also start research on Bronze working, Then I don't know if I should go for Iron working(might not be any nearby) or go for Horseback riding(also might not be horses, However I think there will be) Or I could go for writing. I am so confused, but I will figure it out.

I would like to build some of those Breweries that Karasu was talking about, Maybe that would help me think I was doing better than I actually am!!

I will not build Granaries or Temples, Instead for Culture I will build Libraries.

I intend to go home after work today and try a little play on Emporer level with Ottomans just for a little check see!

Thank you all for the great advice and help, Maybe one day I will grow big and strong like a pro!!