Gotm23-Arabs Speculation Thread

[cracker]

With the Vikings game almost in the can, it is time to open the player speculation thread for Gotm23 and see what your best guesses will be as to how this game will take shape.

The playable civ is the Arabs based on the PTW civ definitions and the UU is setup to be like the Ansar Warrior. The Civ3v1.29 version will have the cataphract added as a substitute for the Ansar which is a cheap/lite knight.

The game should again be very unique and lots of fun!!

Look back at features of the last 4 to 6 GOTM games and see if that knowledge may help you to develop a context which will help you prepare for Gotm23.

What do you think you will see in terms of map characteristics and civ opponents?

 

[Wanderer]

Well,

Arabia - I expect to see a dry world, possible quite old to get more desert etc. Given that, I think capitalizing on water sources could be important, and I think we might find no easy water to start ...

I assume that coastal water would be less important ... we might see more of a "cradle of civilizations" type game.

Oil, I assume should be easily accessible for us, when we get there! []

I wonder what level it will be - recent games have been quite high - "demi-god" and ... hmm what was gotm 21 - monarch ? (( that classifies as quite high for me)).

I wonder if cracker might not give us a little regent curveball, and see how poeple do when they don't have the AI tech level's and productivity to contentd with. That said, Cracker doesn't really aim to have everyone win, so perhaps regent is out of the question.

As to opposition ... babylonians, mongol's , ... not certain.

I would guess maybe a small map, given the limited size of real-world "arabia".

Now for the wiser heads comments ...

 

[Ronald]

The arabs have an interesting UU, the ansar warrior, a cheap fast knight, so I would expect a pangea map where we can make good use of this UU.
Water could be of an issue (dry land with lots of deserts).
Being expansionist and religious will give us some techs in the ancient age. Hopefully we will have horses close to our starting position.
I would expect a large or standard map with the Persia, Egypt, Babylon, Carthago, Minoans and probably Mongolia, China, Russia and Rome as our opponents. So prepare for some fighting.
For the medal play, I expect a diplomatic victory to be mandatory (with these aggressive neighbours it could be some fun. The other possibility we didn't have so far could be a 100k culture victory, but since the last was 20k I would rather bet on diplo.

We had quite some tough difficulty settings, so regent could be the case, especially in combination with diplo as requirement, we will need to have to research quite a lot ourselves.

As barbarians, the predator group has to fight US marines and F16s

 

[Tech Step]

I would like to see victory conditions changed so that you have to get to certain milestones.

something like

1: must have a max of 10 cities by 1200AD
2: must not attck a certain civ until a certain date.

this way we can see how people fare when they are using tanks to attack as opposed to knights. (this way the slower starters may get more of a chance to get better scores as their game may be tailored to the modern era etc.

this would be very pertenant for this game as the arabs would be fighting the english and the americans with modern warfare. (similar to the world today)

 

[Boyd]

Arabs... expansionist and religious... an excellent civ for a player like me!

I get to build temples and scouts! Happy population despite the fact they won't know what baths are (i.e. lack of water, not a cultural aspertion). Hate water myself so this'll be grand.

The new rersources of goats et al. will be in this I wager.

Regent of monarch level.

We'll hopefully be sitting astride a trade route or two (historical) and there will be plump, complacent commercial and cultural cities nearby by to wreak havoc upon as we teach them that false idols and merchants are an anethema to the spirit!

Pangaea or large continents.

But then again, I rank in the bottom fifth of players so what do I know?

 

[Darkness]

I was going to write a lengthy reply to crackers questions, but I read the four answers already given and found Ronald basically said everything I wanted to say....

So I'll just: Agree with everything Ronald said, especially the predator barbarians line...

 

[burkina]

Ciao,

I was wondering if the new PTW patch can be used in GOTM23.
I assume no, so I'd better wait to install it....

Stefano

 

[ControlFreak]

Originally posted by burkina
Ciao,

I was wondering if the new PTW patch can be used in GOTM23.
I assume no, so I'd better wait to install it....

Stefano

The GOTM Scope page for 5-4 says PTW1.14,1.21,1.27 so I think you can use it.

 

[RowAndLive]

Originally posted by Boyd
The new rersources of goats et al. will be in this I wager.

Regent or monarch level.

We'll hopefully be sitting astride a trade route or two (historical) and there will be plump, complacent commercial and cultural cities nearby by to wreak havoc upon as we teach them that false idols and merchants are an anethema to the spirit!

Pangaea or large continents.

I agree on the goats, and all that Ronald said.

Otherwise, given the trade route comment above, and given the UU, it would be interesting to see us start out in the MIDDLE of the map! Then we'd have no preconceived notion about which way to move, and they'd be coming at us from all sides.

Also, forgetting the comment about current world, it would be nice to see a max expansion limit early on, as was mentioned. That would spice it up a bit for the upper end players who tend to over-run the map early on. Then again, that's what scenarios are for, and not full games. Of course, that would also effectively nulify the UU, so I certainly wouldn't expect to see it here, but perhaps in the future...

Not to gripe, but it would also be nice to see the QSC 21 & 22 evaluations. These have been valuable learning tools to those of us at the bottom end. That also gives those of us with time constraints the ability to still "compete", even if it's not official for GOTM or tournament...

 

[Svar]

I agree with Ronald as well and would add that I think the landmass will be mediterranean. Cracker hinted at that in his introduction and I always wondered about the map for Gotm21 being all the way over on one edge when your country actually occupied both edges of the minimap. I haven't played as long as most players so don't know if he actually uses the same map for different games just changing the starting location.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Given cracker's trends, I think that the game will be deity (although I hope he gives us weaker players some help like he has in the past.)

Since the tournament already has had a spaceship, 20K, and a conquest; I think he will require a diplo win.

I agree with the dry comments, although I wouldn't be surprised to see a map that has many African characteristics, desert boardering on jungle. Of course we would be starting in an oasis in the middle of the Sahara, which would make the expansionist trait crucial to our survival.

I would expect to see Carthage, Zulu, Persians, Minoans, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, Spanish.

I think you may see a new civ like the Ethiopians.

Goats and olives will return, and maybe a new resource like dates (what else would you find at an oasis... the Gallaghers?)

[Edit: Oh, and Egyptians]

 

[Naboo]

I would love to see Rome given considerable advantages and early protections so that there is a "Roman Empire" that is dominant and has to be overcome (by us, of course!)

Water should be precious. I like the idea of widely scattered oases (1-tile lakes with nearby date palms), with perhaps one large river that passes through a zone of several Civs. This would be on the African side where I'd expect us to be, duking it out with the Egyptians, Babylonians and Zulu. The early fast units could be key to establishing a power base on the starting continent.

In compensation for less than fertile lands, there might be a generous supply of luxuries that we could trade (if we can get control of them).

Optional victory condition - overcome the Roman Empire and achieve domination

 

[Karasu]

Ok, my shoot.

Difficulty level: Sid (which, as we all know, is one step above Deity and one below Cracker... ). Or Emperor, not sure.

Map: Large pangea; we start surrounded by 200 tiles of desert in all directions.
New luxury resource available, the mirage: when you first discover it, it is a +99 food, +99 shield, +99 commerce bonus, only to disappear as soon as you connect it.
I like the idea of the scattered oases, though. Hope something along that line was in Cracker's mind...

Opponents: Egypt, Persia and Babylon next to us. They will obviously start next to rivers with flood plains.
Egypt will start with the Lighthouse and Great Library right from the beginning.
Babylon will have a new wonder: the Tower of Babel, which will prevent us from getting contacts with any other civ until we discover Foreign Languages.
Rome will start with one settler, one worker and 100 Legionaries.
Mongols will start with no settlers, no workers, and 200 horsemen.
Political correctness prevents me from guessing additinoal civs...

Tournament victory must be diplo, but watch out. It looks too obvious... there might be a twist of some kind...

 

[LeSphinx]

Hope we will have an easy difficulty factor as we have since a couple of month high difficulty levels !

What do you think ?

LeSphinx

 

[asabahi]

Tournament victory has to be domination. That is the only historical route that makes sense. You do have to have the persians, babalyon, and the greeks involved. Also the romans, egyptians, india, and maybe china. bonus plains, plus bonus resources. Hopefully monarch or emperor level. Should be able to reach out and touch the other civs except maybe a new world consisting of the americans and aztecs.

 

[MacBaldrick]

My pennyworth would predict dry but with the new bonus resources from GOTM 21.

map will not be 'realistic' but might be two larger land masses (joined up to create pangea ?) with high proportion of land vs water.

Start might be on coast again using the new resources to create viable capital in dry area.

AI Civs will be all the usual mid-east / med. suspects including Carthage & Ottomans plus Indians, Mongols and perhaps Vikings ? (Cracker likes to re-use new Civs).

UU indicates early military campaigns with mass 'light' knights before AI can build significant knights themselves.

 

[Jove]

Arrrr, maybe current cultural proclivities will prevail in this GOTM. Mohammed is the name of the settler in 4000 BC, within 1400 years our olive-skinned bretheren are viewed as terrorists in every ancient port and scrutinized suspiciously, leading to pre-emptive wars declared by superior, aggressive opponents hell-bent on kicking our ass... Sid difficulty level, the AI can see our oil reserves while we're still in the middle ages... any resistance toward the pursuit of the survival of our culture is viewed as terroristic and uber-threatening... Cal Thomas writes columns about us in the foreign press about how evil and heathen we are... we get attacked by everyone anytime another Arab nation declares war on anybody, whether we have anything to do with it or not... nukes flatten Baghdad on the pretense of self-defense while we're starting research on Flight... a hellish, nasty game that only SirPleb and his kind can win...

 

[LKendter]

Well I had a bad feeling this would get "politically incorrect" with the choice of the civ.

Let's keep the focus on the game - not political commentary!

 

[CruddyLeper]

Hmm... Having scanned the above comments, I'd agree with Ronald and others that a Pangaea map is likely. I hate that sort of map personally but of course I'll still play.

Would expect a non-river start so cranking down to Regent is likely.

Only other thing to add is that the Chinese and Indians should be in the game for regional reasons - not that it really means much. Would not be surprised to see the Vikings in it either (why? Why not? Check your history books). Spanish also likely contenders as are the Greeks and Russians.

Apart from that - no inspiration.

 

[Tech Step]

It wouldn't surprise me if the map was huge and the americans were on the other side of the world and not contactable for quite some time and had quite a tactical advantage (resources, luxuries), It would then follow suit if they were very very aggressive. This way when we do finally get in contact with them they are technologically advanced and wanting to attack.

as for the beginning of the game It wouldn't surprise me to see the egyptians being very very powerfull and located near a large river and they should probably fall to the roman empire.

I am not sure if it is possible but it would be good if cracker could make it so that at certain times in the game particular civs attacked another civ. (that way we could emulate the roman/greek empires and then finally the current political climate???)

I think that we will have to expand rapidly and that resources and luxuries will be sparce.

I am going to be aiming for Collosus, oracle,great library and then horseback riding. Once i have researched horseback riding the _only_ military unit that I will make is a horseman so i can upgrade them and ride across the mountains and crush my slow opponents. :rocket2: