[BTS] News: BOTM 173 - Monty, Monarch - Starts 1 April

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 173: Montezuma of Aztec.

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm173civ.jpg[/img]

This time the Gods are kind. After your last game was immortal level on an arboria map, I decided to give you a similar map - but this time with a Civ that some of you may feel is more suited to it. Have fun...

Game settings:
Playing as: Montezuma of Aztec
Rivals: 5 AIs
Difficulty: Monarch
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: None
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Arboria
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Tropical
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -50°S to 50°N


Montezuma is Aggressive and Spiritual, and you start with Mysticism and Hunting.

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

The Spiritual trait gives no anarchy and double production speed of Temple and Cristo Redentor

Unique unit: Jaguar (replaces Swordsman)
The Jaguar benefits from: base strength = 5, requires access to nothing, free promotions: woodsman1, and 35 hammers to build (on normal speed). This compares with the Swordsman which has: base strength = 6, requires access to iron, and 40 hammers to build (on normal speed).

Unique Building: Sacrificial Altar (replaces Courthouse)
The big extra feature of the sacrificial altar is it reduces the anger duration from sacrificing population to 5 turns - so you can whip every 5 turns without anger building up. And it's cheaper than a courthouse - 90 hammers instead of 120 hammers. It retains the -50% maintenance costs, +2 espionage points/turn and ability to turn 1 citizen into a spy that the courthouse gives you.

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.


To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 1 Apr 2019, 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 1 May 2019.

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 3.19.005 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.

 

[Pangaea]

Ooooh, a new game! and it's with everybody's best friend.

The scout obviously needs to move south here, to get a slightly better view of what might be lost by moving the settler north. Settling on the marble might have been an option for the extra hammer, but not here I think. Not with the mountains to the east, and the river going south. Just based on that screenshot, my current thinking is probably to just settle in place, and use the two foods north for a different city. plains cow isn't exactly grand, but two sources of food should be okay, and there is that nice river for cottaging.

Hard to spot from just a screenshot, easier with fog-gazing in-game, but it looks to me like there is a naked hill 2S of the settler, and a naked tile west of that one. Good chances of at least one of those being a resource. Move the scout onto the cow, and we'll know a bit more. There is also a naked-ish tile 2W1N of the settler (on the top left edge of the selected city area). It looks like the forest is circled, which might mean there is another forested deer there (o'dear).

Since we start with Hunting, we can go AH right away. Food-wise a plains cow is pretty crap, but yield-wise they are good and well worth using. Won't hurt to get early view of horses either. After AH, probably go Mining-BW. Depends on what else is around, and we should pick up Agri for the excellent food, and then it's possible to go directly Writing-Math/Alpha if we want. Monarch AIs are slow enough to possibly warrant it, as opposed to waiting until the AIs get Alpha for us.

Personally I think the Jaguar (not the car) kinda sucks, although it's certainly useful if we were to lack both Copper and Iron. It's basically a worse Axeman.

 

[lymond]

Aaaaaaand it’s another Monty game......

 

[Xcalibrator]

Personally I think the Jaguar (not the car) kinda sucks, although it's certainly useful if we were to lack both Copper and Iron. It's basically a worse Axeman.

True, but build a (half-price) barracks or kill a couple barbs and you've got a WoodyII unit, which can cause all kinds of mischief on Arboria maps.

 

[High King J.J.]

Okay it's Monty but is there a Jabberwocky or at least a Holy Grail? Ni.
Ni?
Ni!
There's enough shrubbery at least.
No options means events are on. It's time for Toxcatl.

 

[Pangaea]

Okay it's Monty but is there a Jabberwocky or at least a Holy Grail? Ni.

 

[jerza]

Hi, I have been playing Civ 4 occasionally for some time and I'm considering participating in GOTM for the very first time ever I have read the 'Please read' thread, I do use BUFFY, but I'm not 100% sure about the 'Lock Modified Assets' setting - if I don't get the red Not Eligible For GOTM warning, then my save would be eligible? And is there anything else I should check/consider/take into account? Thanks

... I have just noticed you accept losing games as well, great

 

[jerza]

...I am considering trying out the BOTM 171. Even though I will probably not be able to finish the game in time, I could submit the "When I retired from my incomplete game" file just to make sure all the versions/settings are ok, right? Thanks.

 

[Pangaea]

For BOTM games you don't have to worry about Lock Modified Assets. It will be set by default, because the Staff are making the file and making sure everything is set up correctly. You can't change any of those settings yourself.

True. If you don't manage to complete the game, you can hand in your last save. If you happen to get to the end but lose, you can hand in that as well.

Probably the main thing to consider with these games is that there is no "do over". If you make a mistake, misclick, accidental war declaration, a wolf eats a settler, that's it. You must take it on the chin and continue. That's the charm and challenge too of course, and why we like these games so much.

Best of luck

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Hi, I have been playing Civ 4 occasionally for some time and I'm considering participating in GOTM for the very first time ever I have read the 'Please read' thread, I do use BUFFY, but I'm not 100% sure about the 'Lock Modified Assets' setting - if I don't get the red Not Eligible For GOTM warning, then my save would be eligible? And is there anything else I should check/consider/take into account? Thanks

... I have just noticed you accept losing games as well, great

Oh of course. We totally welcome losing games. And retired games... all are much better than playing and then not submitting anything.

And as Pangaea says, the main rule is not to replay anything. Once you've made a move, that's it. As long as you follow that, and you make sure the game is set up to run with admin privileges, you should be fine. (If you don't have admin privileges set up, the game will warn you when you start it). And you're correct that if you're nervous about whether you've got things set up correctly, you'll quickly find that out when you submit your first game.

Oh - and - welcome to the GOTMs! Have fun!

 

[jerza]

Thanks
Btw. I've just noticed I have to upgrade BUFFY from 3.19.003 to 3.19.005, and the notes I made years ago for installing BUFFY among other things say "- edit BUFFY-3.19.003.ini - change NoCustomAssets = 0 to NoCustomAssets = 1". I guess this is a lame newbie question, but I don't have to worry about this if you set up the game, right? Thanks again.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I've never changed anything in BUFFY. It just installs out of the box. Maybe changing custom assets is something you have to do for HOF games? (HOF is a totally different competition from GOTM, but we just happen to share the same mod).

Also, the two versions of BUFFY 003 and 005 happily co-exist - there are no problems with them both being installed at the same time. Just install 005 and you should be fine.

 

[Pangaea]

Haven't seen anything about that line either, but maybe it was something needed in the past? Or with particular set-ups? The only things I recall changing in the .ini is about saves, and the intro movie.

AutoSaveInterval = 1
MaxAutoSaves = 10
NoIntroMovie = 1

 

[lymond]

I believe jerza is referring to the mod's ini file. The intro movie is disabled in the main ini file.

No there is no reason to change anything in the buffy ini file.

 

[jerza]

ok, thank you all, I'll give it a try

 

[Anatoly]

Options: None

Does that mean that there will be goody huts and events?

 

[jerza]

ok, I have installed BUFFY 005 and started the BOTM 171 game without any warning messages or anythong like that, so hopefully everything's ok
can I please bother you with some more newbie questions?
- can I rename my civ, leader and cities in BOTM game or not?
- the intro page for BOTM 171 says files have to be submitted by 2 Apr, but the submission page for says there's still 3 days 17 hours left which would mean the deadline is 3 Apr 10 AM, I guess the latter is correct, right?
- do you happen to know what are the diffeence s between BUFFY 003 and 005?
- what does th 'B' in BOTM stand for?
thanks again

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Options: None

Does that mean that there will be goody huts and events?

Yes that's correct. Goody huts and events are by default on, unless a specific option is used to turn them off.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

ok, I have installed BUFFY 005 and started the BOTM 171 game without any warning messages or anythong like that, so hopefully everything's ok
can I please bother you with some more newbie questions?
- can I rename my civ, leader and cities in BOTM game or not?
- the intro page for BOTM 171 says files have to be submitted by 2 Apr, but the submission page for says there's still 3 days 17 hours left which would mean the deadline is 3 Apr 10 AM, I guess the latter is correct, right?
- do you happen to know what are the diffeence s between BUFFY 003 and 005?
- what does th 'B' in BOTM stand for?
thanks again

Well done on getting the game working! I know it's not that easy with all the stuff you have to do to get a game set up to run GOTMs.

Yes, renaming Civ, leaders and cities is not a problem at all. That's just part of normal playing.

Re the submission date.... you have to remember there are lots of different time-zones in the World. So when a submission date is specified as - say - 2 April, then to be fair to everyone, we need to allow submissions right up until the end of 2 April in every time-zone. Obviously, when the very final timezone hits midnight on 2nd April, lots of other countries are already well into 3rd April. If you're running up to the deadline and need to know how many hours you have left, the countdown on the submissions page is your guide.

The 'B' in BOTM stands for BtS.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Spoiler threads are up!