Gotm21-Mediterranean Melee - Speculation Thread

[simonsezz]

Well olives and olive oil are the obvious choices for luxuries and bronze for ancient weapons, how about goats, feta cheese, and some big juicy tomatos too .
Egypt, Persia, Germany, Russia, France, Rome, Ottomans, Arabs, and Carthaginians, might even see the Mongols representing the uneducated masses .
Archipeligo with Greece and Rome and maybe Carthage and Persia and a larger land mass containing the rest as water makes a much more effective game barrier than mountains for human vs. AI.
Won't be Deity and if we do have to use a lot of boats to expand and make contact probably an easier setting like monarch.

<snip - no spoiler's from other games please>

 

[sekong]

Greece, as commercial + scientific, is a nice fit for high difficulty game, therefore it will be an Emperor+ game.

As for the extra resource, copper I guess, for their UU.

 

[Borealis]

I agree on the olive oil resource, and Persia as a likely neighbor. There will probably be at least one major sea/ocean, probably in the middle of the map, to simulate the feel of having to either take ship or go laterally to conquer enemies. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Rome showed up in the game, either in it as an enemy AI or in barbarian form.

 

[Ambiorix]

I'm bracing myself for a Full-Imersion expercience. I think Cracker will have gone to the depths of hell and back again to tweek any feature of the game to make it feel Greek. The resources will be Greek, the User Interface will be Greek (I started a crash-course in Ancient Greek just to be prepared !), the progress path will be the same, but the names of the techs will be replaced by things like 'sheep herding' in the ancient age' and 'toga folding' in the modern age. Timeline will be from 700BC to 100AD. The UN will be replaced by the Olympic Games, the music will be replaced by sirtaki, the map will be huge, and an exact replica of the Mediterranean, with all obvious civ's on their respective locations.
We'll get about 50 new units to install, amongst which the Spear Thrower, the 'Guy Who Knows How To Get A Greek Fire Started', and the Marathon Runner (0.1.42).

I have my dictionary with me, a bottle of Ouzo and Retsina on the side, together with some Olives and 'Pistache' nuts, my Moussaka is in the oven and I'm looking at a painting of a sailing boat on a clear blue dea.
Bring it on !

Ambiorix (Getting a tick on the head for raising expectations too much )

 

[maqabee]

Ben the Gasman I agree--I am new to the gotm and have gotten lynched by 1600 ad 4 times already playing gotm 20 -conquest-- it's great fun and gaming but I am surely NOT a scratch CIV player-- maybe a 10 handicapper with hopes of improving as I gain more experience. Cracker - please create onelevel a bit easier-- so that at least I can get to 2003 ad :-}

 

[LKendter]

Now I truly now how far behind I am for GOTM#20 and completing it. The speculation thread has arrived, and I am just getting ready to post in spoiler #2.

I won't be in the guessing thread this month.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by LKendter
Now I truly now how far behind I am for GOTM#20 and completing it. The speculation thread has arrived, and I am just getting ready to post in spoiler #2.

I won't be in the guessing thread this month.

Me too! Just posted in Spoiler2 and still working hard to stay alive for the finale. Seven days to go - doesn't time fly when you're having fun!

Maybe we'll be looking at an archipeligo-style start where we can practice coastal navigation to build our empire. We'll be on a peninsula, with litte opportunity for mainland expansion - mountains or Ottoman/Roman starting positions getting in the way, but maybe first contact with other civs will be possible by island-hopping across the narrows to Egypt, Spain, Zulu? Greece is commercial/scientific, so we get Alphabet as a head start towards map making to help with sea-borne expansion.

There's just got to be a major contested island with special resources where we can confront the Ottomans (Cyprus).

How about sun tan oil, sun glasses or retzina as new luxuries. Or Vacation Resort as a new building that becomes available with Steam Power, adds commerce like a bank, improves the attitude of other civs, but generates pollution . Or with Flight you could build Timeshare? Irish Bar? ..... I'll go back to GOTM20

 

[OneFastWarrior]

Resources. I can't relly think of anything else that hasn't been already said, so... how about this? Somewhere we will be able to call upon Zeus to smite our enemys, or if we don't play honorably(no breaking deals) then Zeus or Neptune or the others will smite us

 

[CruddyLeper]

One extra thought... Maybe the Ottomans or Arabs will have coffee as a luxury resource

 

[Wanderer]

Hmmm.... Coffee good!1! I'll launch a war for that, right now!

I missed out on last few GOTM - SG's and RL took their toll. I'm very keen to get into the all-new, Better-Than-Life (BTL) GOTM. Just hope I dont get it handed to me, AGAIN. Something lower than emperor would be nice, altho from what I read, I'm definitely a conquest category candidate.

I'll be interested to see that first starting position map !

 

[trajam]

Could figs be a possible resource?

Clues could be left on the map in Greek pointing the way to bonus resources?

As melee can be defined as "a noisy riotous fight", I would anticipate a large number of civs on a fairly small map. I would speculate that two or three over civs would be placed very close to the Greeks. In this type of situation, the hoplite could be very key to early survival.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

(Post 32)
Trajam - I think you are most probably right on the mark about the melee. This will be a game where the UU is really needed.

I have a feeling that it will be a crowded map, but smaller enemies will drop out of the race quickly.

 

[mudfoot]

I'm really bad at guessing what the next GOTM will be like, but that's no problem 'cause there are plenty of people who seem to be quite good at it.
In this case, I'm gonna step in behind rabbies and hope for an Always War predator class. If this is the case, the only other requirement is that the level is set below Emporer (although I would probably still go for it if it wasn't ).
A while ago, I lurked a bit on the RB forums and even played one of their games, which happened to be an AW Monarch game with the Greeks. That was a really fun game and the Greeks seem perfect for this kind of game (their UU and being Scientific/Commercial)!
Since I already played one of these, why would I wanna do that again?
Cracker, that's why! He will make it even more challenging and fun!

mudfoot

Edit: something seems to be wrong with the dates again. The time/date right now is '10.20AM (GMT+1) 23/06/2003'

 

[CdB]

Originally posted by Ambiorix
... the Marathon Runner (0.1.42)...

I love the idea

And what about all leaders names after alll gods / goddesses from Greek Mythology

 

[scubagtr]

I know that Greece exports a lot of tobacco over there and olive oil. Maybe we can also trade Greek god Statues.

OK, the Greeks start off right away with Hoplites for good defense. I just have to figure out what to do with that advantage. I'm sure once the next thread opens up, everyone will discuss that.

I'm thinking a small donut world with an island of resources in the middle for us all to battle over.

 

[CruddyLeper]

After having thought about it, I think maybe practising archer rushes might be an idea...

It's a technique I've always been bad at, and given the "melee" in the title it might be a smart move. Depends on food production of the start area, so maybe I'll abandon the idea once I see the start.

Then again, it's wise to be prepared.

 

[Ambiorix]

Hmmm... interesting idea. Is there a thread where the details of this archer rush thingie are explained ?

 

[scubagtr]

The toughest problem I have is knowing when enough is enough. Do I need 10 archers or 100? I guess we make liitle army stacks of a couple Hops with 10 archers and make as many sets of those as we can, hopefully 10 sets or so.

To practice for this game, I will play Greeks on Emperor on a tiny world panagea, max civs. This should allow for several QSC-type short games to get an idea of what to expect, lots of civs, lots of quick land grabbing, and early fighting.

 

[Txurce]

You only need four cities to build the necessary forces in the optimal amount of time. Ten archers is safe for an early archer rush - five per city gets you two cities on the first turn of war, which will cripple most civs that early in the game. After that, consolidation and reinforcements allow you to finish off the job, if you don't want to leave the civ alive.

The definitive thread is Sir Ralph's Timeline for the ultra-early archer rush

 

[Ambiorix]

Tx, Txurce !