[BTS] News: BOTM 152 Hammurabi at War starts April 5

[Deckhand]

BOTM 152: Hammurabi of Babylon.

Hammurabi of Babylon at War.
During a stealthy and cunning night-time raid, Hammurabi's spies stole the gold and cows from right underneath the prying eyes of Isabella and Joao. Unfortunately they didn't appreciate the move nearly as much as Hammurabi and his subordinates. Early next morning, Portuguese and Spanish messengers showed up with official declarations of war.

Thankfully the Babylonians have a trick or two up their sleeves... in the form of well-trained Machine-Gunners.

Joao and Isabella are unusually upset about the theft from their under-guarded hills and fields, and will not entertain the idea of negotiations. That means you will never be able to end the war diplomatically. It's a feud for the ages, with hopefully a Babylonian victor.

But despair not. There are four other civilizations, and you have normal relations with them, so there will be ample opportunities for trade and friendships, and maybe a bribe or two?


Game settings:
Playing as: Hammurabi of Babylon
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Prince
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Lakes
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Worldsize_standard
Climate: Climate_tropical
Sea level: Sealevel_high


Hammurabi is Organized and Aggressive, and you start with The Wheel and Agriculture.
The Organized trait gives -50% civic upkeep and double production speed of Courthouse, Factory and Lighthouse

The Aggressive trait gives free Combat I promotion for melee and gunpowder units and double production speed of Barracks and Drydock

Unique unit: Bowman (replaces Archer)
The Bowman benefits from: 50% combat bonus against melee units. This compares with the Archer which has: no directly comparable benefits.

Unique Building: Garden (replaces Colosseum)
+2 in addition to Colosseum benefits of +1 and +1 / 20% slider.

Starting screenshot

This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):




Note that in this game, any espionage-culture victories will be counted as cultural victories. This game is still using BUFFY version 3.19.003.


Adventurer Class bonuses:
You don't always win at Prince and the thought of two civs always at war is scary. You play at Warlords level. It's just for fun anyway and this with the machine guns should be fun.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Bowmen! Babylon has bowmen. We don't need no stinkin' machine guns. You play without the starting machine guns.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 5 Apr 2018, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 6 May 2018.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the BUFFY mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.


Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the Mac BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the Mac BUFFY mod here.
While playing...

Remember - for your entry to be accepted, it MUST be your first attempt to play this game, and you MUST NOT replay any turns. If you make a mistake while playing, you have to live with it, learn from it, and carry on the game without replaying.

We will open 'spoiler' threads during the month for players to discuss what happens in their games. Do not discuss any details of your game outside those threads.

 

[Deckhand]

Pangaea is to be congratulated for discovering how to update worldbuilder file to create an always war scenario with some but not all civs;
and to be thanked for creating this map.



edit, also note that this game (contender and challenger) is Prince level. (Noble was scheduled).

 

[Pangaea]

Thanks for approving and posting the game Hope people have fun with it.

Just a small note: Pretty sure I chose high sea level. Some sand in the auto-generator perhaps?

Guess the 'other' one should be considered April's Fool, eh? Otherwise we have two BOTM 152s

 

[Deckhand]

Thanks for approving and posting the game Hope people have fun with it.

I'm playing it too. Fun so far.

Just a small note: Pretty sure I chose high sea level. Some sand in the auto-generator perhaps?

You are right.
Double checked, when loading scenario it is high sea level and high sea level is what I saw/experienced.
But the gotm tool called it medium.

Guess the 'other' one should be considered April's Fool, eh? Otherwise we have two BOTM 152s

Yes, the other one is an April's Fool. It's a real playable game. But I loaded it as BOTM 153, and can't be downloaded until April 15. By then I expect the real 153 to have replaced it.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

With 3 Non-Settler Units to move, we will be able to see a little bit more of the surrounding area before deciding where to settle.

From what we can see now, moving 1 E P Riv looks promising, giving us the River as a defensive bonus if any of the angry AIs are to the south-east.

Or, we could move 1 W GH, ignore the Gold Resource (which would generally not be a good idea), and hole up in our capital with the Hills defensive bonus. Probably doing so will be major overkill, since the announcement says that the enemies showed up with "official declarations of war" and not with "large stacks of Units."

Moving 1 S P Riv could also be interesting if something nice gets revealed, such as a Magical (Coastal) Fish Resource 1 SW of the Cow, which I'd gladly take in exchange for the Gold Resource, assuming that a Work Boat could reach there. Then again, I'm not holding out much hope, since the water shows up as a Lake instead of an Ocean.

I'm playing it too. Fun so far.

Game Admin's privilege to start the game early, huh? Please avoid spoiling us in this thread.


LOL at the Cows in the Hammurabi picture.


I wonder what would happen if another AI were to Vassal the Spanish or the Portuguese... setting up such a situation might be one way for us to get out a Permanent War. After you get Peace, you then find a way to break up the Vassal relationship. Would you then be locked into Permanent Peace or would you earn the flexibility of being able to be at War or at Peace?

 

[Pangaea]

I wonder what would happen if another AI were to Vassal the Spanish or the Portuguese... setting up such a situation might be one way for us to get out a Permanent War. After you get Peace, you then find a way to break up the Vassal relationship. Would you then be locked into Permanent Peace or would you earn the flexibility of being able to be at War or at Peace?

Not sure what would happen if something like that occurred - or if it's even possible. I suspect it would be similar to a "We're afraid of your enemies" situation, so the vassal wouldn't go through. But if it did, I would expect the permanent war to extend to the new 'mother'-vassal too, so you'd be in permanent war with 3 civs.

There is also the practical side of it: that due to starting with 2 MGs, your military power is rather dominant from the get-go, so it will take time for the other AIs to catch up (particularly as this is Prince, not Immortal or Deity). Remember the AI starting unit is warrior on Prince.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Spoiler threads?

 

[Deckhand]

Spoiler threads?

so sorry
Didn't realize I hadn't created these. oopsies
created now