GOTM84 (haft aab)

[Ali Ardavan]

With Duke's permission, may I have the honor of presenting Haft aab (7 rivers) on the 7th anniversary of the Game of the Month.

Game of the Month #84 (January 2008)

The game settings
Civilization: Persians
Map: (Haft aab) 105x95 round; 7 civs
Difficulty: Emperor
Barbarians: Roving Bands (-25)
Restarts: On
Starting Techs: None

This is a custom map that I created years ago. You are encouraged to look at the map before you start. The map is not revealed during the game though.

This is a large very young world (meaning that terrain types come in big clusters). Haft aab means 7 rivers. These are not your ordinary rivers. They are long, very long. Every civilization starts near one. The rapid movement this offers right at the begining makes for some interesting plays.

To make things a little more challenging, all your rivals have Horsebackriding as a starting tech, an extra None settler, and a city wall in their capital.

Starting location:
http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/gotm_games/GOTM84.jpg

Games will be due on February 2nd, 2008.

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

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Please think long and hard before getting started. The map makes this game quite unusual. Some points to keep in mind:

1. The long rivers make for some rapid movement right at the start. They also mean empires can easily and quickly spread.

2. One huge land mass means
2.1 Reduced trade bonuses (no overseas trade possible)
2.2 Little room for naval action
2.3 Plenty of room for restarts
2.4 Plenty of huts

3. Plan your conquest with the city walls in rival capitals in mind.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Ali doe you mean with point 3 that this game is conquest only or is spaceship allowed?

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Magic gorter, space ship victory is allowed.

 

[Peaster]

You suggested looking at the map first, so that will be the norm for this GOTM, I guess (but people who prefer exploring can do so, at some disadvantage). People, like me, who don't mess with maps much, may have some problems viewing the map. Here's how I did it, maybe not the fastest way:

Use Ali's link to DL the .map
Change the file spec to .mp (my Civ2 won't recognize .map's)
Start the Civ2 map editor (I used Windows Explorer to do that)
Click on Editor/Load Map.

This map has a few White cities on it, which won't be in the GOTM, I assume. Also, I assume players should NOT take a shortcut and "Reveal Map" via the Cheat Menu, since that would reveal the AI cities ? Did I get all this right?

************************

BTW: What happened in the June 2007 - Dec 2007 GOTMs ?

 

[ccAMELS73]

how did you change the file specs? I can't open the .map file either....well, Magic maybe I am too thick to understand how to do that
so I just downloaded the game file then opened it in the Map editor.
it didnt give away any AI civ locals, so I thought that worked well.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Just change the file name from *.map into *.mp with windows explorer. Press (right click) on the file and chose change name.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

BTW: What happened in the June 2007 - Dec 2007 GOTMs ?

I'm trying to get those games from the staff members who ran out of time to get them done. Unfortunately life happens.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Use Ali's link to DL the .map
Change the file spec to .mp (my Civ2 won't recognize .map's)
Start the Civ2 map editor (I used Windows Explorer to do that)
Click on Editor/Load Map.
...
Also, I assume players should NOT take a shortcut and "Reveal Map" via the Cheat Menu, since that would reveal the AI cities ? Did I get all this right?

You did it exactly right.
Revealing map via Cheat menu is strictly prohibited and it will tag your game as a cheat and makes it inelligible for submittal.

so I just downloaded the game file then opened it in the Map editor.
it didnt give away any AI civ locals, so I thought that worked well.

This is OK too. But the first method is preferable.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

With access to the map, this is easier than usual, but no less important specially for OCC.

There is a 3 buffalo spot next tile with access to 8 rivers, but I believe the best choices for OCC are either of:

(144,8) which is 2 turns away, has 7 river tiles, gives you 4 buffalos (one hidden under grass), and a total of 3 grasslands.

(146,12) which is 2+1/3 turns away, has 5 river tiles, gives you 4 buffalos (one hidden under grass), and a total of 8 grasslands.

If you travel down the river there are 3 and 4 special spots with access to whale but it takes at least 6 turns which I think is not worth it.

All other conditions are suitable for OCC. Ocean access is not needed since there is only one land mass. There are 7 civs and Restarts is on.

 

[Peaster]

I'm planning to start today. Just noticed that our starting position does not seem to match exactly anything on the map we DL'd. I guess that (147,7) in the game corresponds to (73,7) in the editor ??? But in the editor, I don't see our friendly buffalo. Not a big deal, I guess, but is my thinking wrong, or was there some kind of accident with the map?

Edit: After this post, I used Camel's method and started play. Our map is similar to the DL map, but not exactly the same. Also, players should note that this is a scenario, with direct tech (no 2/3's rule). Of course, you might infer that from Ali's posts (but I didn't).

 

[Ali Ardavan]

The x-coordinate in the map editor and the game are always off by a factor of 2. See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=191447&highlight=map+analysis for a thorough map analysis.

The reason you do not see the buffalo is because the map is saved with seed 1 which means that a new seed will be picked randomly upon start. Once you set the right seed the map becomes identical to the one in the game.

And yes, this is a scenario and thus there is no tech hiding.

 

[Peaster]

OK. I've heard about seed numbers, and thought that might be the problem. But I didn't know how/whether to correct it. Since you said Camel's method is OK, and it worked better than mine, I used his. Actually, I had the map editor open thru my whole game and refered to it often. I hope that's OK, and that the other players can do the same thing if they want.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Opening the original downloaded game through the map editor is OK. Keeping it open is also OK.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I do not know about others, but I am still playing and would like to finish. Unless there are objections, I hereby extend the deadline another week to Feb. 9th. It was unwise to set it so early given that this was a huge map and those usually take longer to play.