Gotm23-Arabs - Pregame Discussion

[AlanH]

The usual publication time for the game file itself is midnight Mountain Standard Time. That's 07:00 am tomorrow in my neck of the woods, and something similar for you in Cape Town, give or take an hour or two plus northern hemisphere daylight savings.

The game announcement page says the installer for the game resources will be released at the last minute as well, so I don't know if they are planning to put the two together this month, or if the whole process is behind schedule.

Meanwhile I'm still trying, and failing, to stay motivated and reach a conclusion in the Vikings game, for which I figure I have another 12 hours, so I'm in no hurry.

Patience is a virtue, and virtue has its own reward, as my ole Pappy always told me

 

[Boyd]

"Pappy"? I didn't think they had "Pappys" in England?

Can you tell I'm waiting, too... well off to paint the house.

 

[SirPleb]

I'm late getting to the pregame this month, haven't thought things through in detail yet. Some initial thoughts from me before this thread gets quieter late tonight :

Finding more food will be a priority for me. I'm going to start with scout S. Then unless there's some reason to keep going that way, scout W to mountain. If the scout moves haven't shown a reason to move the settler I'll move the worker E to expose a maximum number of additional tiles with a useful worker move. If there's still no reason to move the settler I'll settle at the start position and irrigate the tile the worker is on.

I'll start research on Alphabet. Initially I'll research at max until I see who's around. I figure starting with Alphabet is a good compromise between a tech I may want and maximizing the opportunity to get nice stuff from goody huts.

I don't have a firm plan for early production. Whether to produce more scouts vs. warriors, and how many of each before the first settler, depends on a number of factors. If settling at a high shield location it will be possible to produce a bit more before the first settler. If the first scout finds a fair bit of flatland I'll lean toward scouts. I'll also lean more that way if we're near a corner of the land mass. OTOH if early moves show that we're hemmed in by a lot of mountain I'll lean toward more warriors since they can explore mountains as quickly as scouts and more safely.

 

[UCB_ari]

I just think it's going to be bizarre to see, say, the Sistine Chapel in Mecca. (Not the the Pyramids in Boston isn't a little strange, but anyway....)

Strategywise, I'll probably develop swordsmen ASAP, and here's why: with Raging barbarians, city defenders are going to be getting a whole lot of work, which means a lot of potential for Elites. Elite spearmen, however, won't be of much use as offensive units. Enough Elite swordsmen going into a war and could have yourself a little leader factory.

Also, more barbarians could mean more money from sacking their villages.

I'll bet you guys anything that the Americans are not a player in this game, just to avoid the potential awkward screenshot of Arab armies taking New York

 

[Qitai]

E,E looks like either a hill or a grassland. I will probably send my scout East and if it is indeed hill, East again. This should reveal a large piece of land to make capital decision easier.

West of mountain range looks more like 2 hills and a plain. I am not very hopeful there, but I may move the worker West if East does not reveal anything just in case. With plains to irrigate and no food bonus, the worker has plenty of time to work slowly. From then on, it is either move the settler depending on what is reveal or settle on spot.

Techwise, I always go for either Monarchy or Republic. Since we are religious, Monarchy it is. So, full throttle Mysticism right from the start followed by 40 turn Polytheism and then probably full throttle monarchy again.

 

[von Riesling]

To me, W,W looks like a definite plain or perhaps grassland. I'll say W,NW & W,SW are hills. N,NW is definitely plains. I have no experience with the tricks to read bonus tiles, and so have no guess on wool or ivory.

My plans follow the others in that the worker will go E, and the Scout S then W. I will settle in place.

Incidentally, I almost always play with raging barbarians, and until they pop their hut at the era change, they're really not that much more active.

Good fortune to everyone!

 

[Yoshimune]

Originally posted by Boyd
@Yoshimune...

The Arabs didn't start between the Tigris and Euphrates... that was the Babylonians, so I wouldn't be expecting a second river nearby. The pregame discussion link by cracker gives some discussion of the starting years of the Arabic peoples as does the Civ Intelligence link on the home page. Have a read as it will fortify you with the hardiness and courage of our tirbe!

Neither Cracker nor the Intelligence page gives a detailed account of the real-life "start position" of the Arabs. Technically, Babylonians are Arabs, or they became Arabs, due to their position on the Arabian peninsula. Pardon my Mid-East history; it's a bit rough, since I never learned it in my American education.

 

[Lady Die]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the GOTM pages. I simply wonder where I can get the installation files for playing GOTM-23. It says on the site that they will be available by the first of September. Unfortunately, they are not. Help me! Is this because I live and work in the CET zone?

 

[Boyd]

Welcome Lady Die...

It doesn't appear to be available yet. cracker is in the CMT zone, I believe, and he is the one who will be postiong.

I'm in the PST and it isn't available to me yet, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Good luck in the game!

 

[Kuningas]

Nothing out yet

My test game were succesfull. Domination in 870AD with same settings.

 

[cracker]

The game announcement pages have been updated to include the links for the game install packs.

(For PTW players the install ought to even make Lee happy and that's pretty hard to do. )

Please take a look at the features page to help you make sure you are playing in the correct difficulty class. Here is the direct link.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/gotm23_features.shtml

An extra reminder should be given to players who have played reasonably good games in the past GOTMS to remember that you should not be playing in the easier Conquest Class game if you have already posted a victory that scored in the upper 50% of the game results. This creates disruption in processing the game results and we may have to start excluding some games from "sandbaggers" if this practice continues.

Good luck to all you bedouin sheiks and sheiktesses.

 

[smackster]

Just a couple of tips that I've gleaned from practise games with the Arabs on PTW.

1) 60GP for the UU upgrade from horseman (30GP with Leo).

2) Raging barbarians on Monarch really doesn't seem to be any different than say Restless in the early stages. When the barbarian hoards came with the Middle Ages crossover I had my own hoards of Horses and Sword to quell them with. Worth timing the big upgrade for that period.

 

[LKendter]

What the?????

What happened to the posts? I had post through 10:37AM (est), and now the latest post is 03:12 AM (est).

Where did 2 screens worth of post disappear to?

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by LKendter
What the?????

What happened to the posts? I had post through 10:37AM (est), and now the latest post is 03:12 AM (est).

Where did 2 screens worth of post disappear to?

They've all been moved to the Panic Ensues - The Sky is Falling - Eee Ooo Ahh!! thread .

 

[a space oddity]

It appears to be moved here

edit: obviously cross posted

 

[LKendter]

Please delete - empty post

 

[Assaultor]

lolz...thanks for fixing all the misconfiged files~~~
and lets roll the ball~~~

 

[Karasu]

That must be Cracker's invisible, swift hand...

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Boyd
"Pappy"? I didn't think they had "Pappys" in England?

Excessive exposure to Hollywood output will do that to you. We all have a 'pappy or two. Some are just not so sure who they are

 

[Naboo]

I was tempted to play predator .sav, but managed to resist, trusting in a quick resolution

Thanks Cracker, and don't be too hard on bug1 - it's possible that not everyone understands the implications of opening a "scenario" file, or sigificance of .bic extension. They may have just been experimenting to find a way to open the save and found the map exposed unwittingly.

Now, on to the game and see what tricks you have up your sleeve....

Catch you on the flip side.