[BTS] News: BOTM 182 starts 16August

[Deckhand]

BOTM 182: CivGamer of Greece.

Random Leaders,
Random Personalities,
Random World.
Events. Huts.
Have Fun.

Game settings:
Playing as: Alexander of Greece
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Emperor
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: Random personalities
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Random
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Worldsize_standard
Climate: Climate_temperate
Sea level: Sealevel_medium


Alexander is Philosophical and Aggressive, and you start with Fishing and Hunting.
The Philosophical trait gives +100% great people birth rate and double production speed of University

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

Unique unit: Phalanx (replaces Axeman)
The Phalanx benefits from: 100% defence bonus against chariot. This compares with the Axeman which has: no directly comparable benefits.

Unique Building: Odeon (replaces Colosseum)
+ 2 , + 3 , allows 2 artist specialists, +1 from Hit Singles, +1 / 20% slider

Spoiler Colosseum :

only 1, no culture, no extra artist jobs, no appreciation of classic rock

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 16 Aug 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 22 Sep 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.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Interesting. I reckon settling 1E on the ivory looks like a no-brainer: Extra hammer for a faster worker, no turn cost to moving, and you get the cows and a bit more land. And it's riverside too, and as a very minor benefit, later on you save worker turns building a camp that wouldn't exactly give you a brilliant tile anyway.

 

[lymond]

I reckon settling 1E on the ivory looks like a no-brainer.

It is indeed.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Interesting. I reckon settling 1E on the ivory looks like a no-brainer: Extra hammer for a faster worker, no turn cost to moving, and you get the cows and a bit more land. And it's riverside too, and as a very minor benefit, later on you save worker turns building a camp that wouldn't exactly give you a brilliant tile anyway.

Also save 1 not working the ivory tile. Relatively food scarce location, judging from what we see so far.

 

[WastinTime]

settling 1E on the ivory looks like a no-brainer:

Yeah, has there ever been a xotM where everyone settled the same capital? (not counting the pre-settled xotM's). Kinda makes we want to go somewhere else, but not likely. We even start with Fishing/Hunting.

Thinking like an evil mapmaker... Before settling, everyone will likely move the scout 2N2E to the hill right?
That could reveal gold, silver, gems, pigs, corn, wheat, etc. (I'm talking...all of the above!) With the mapmaker's intent being to take away the usual pre-game settling discussion, cus once you open the save, you can't post here and you can't discuss it in the spoiler til 1AD.

Or the goal was simply to have everyone start the same for a change.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Yeah, has there ever been a xotM where everyone settled the same capital? (not counting the pre-settled xotM's). Kinda makes we want to go somewhere else, but not likely. We even start with Fishing/Hunting.

Thinking like an evil mapmaker... Before settling, everyone will likely move the scout 2N2E to the hill right?
That could reveal gold, silver, gems, pigs, corn, wheat, etc. (I'm talking...all of the above!) With the mapmaker's intent being to take away the usual pre-game settling discussion, cus once you open the save, you can't post here and you can't discuss it in the spoiler til 1AD.

Or the goal was simply to have everyone start the same for a change.

But isn't there something about popping a hut by settling eliminating the chance for a free tech?

 

[lymond]

But isn't there something about popping a hut by settling eliminating the chance for a free tech?

Does is actually work that way? I thought a city could pop a tech but I so rarely use huts that I'm not sure anymore. Is not the city "settled" then the hut popped by culture, or is it like a simultaneous action?

WT - there seems to be some that always tend to settle off the beaten path regardless of the starting area

 

[WastinTime]

But isn't there something about popping a hut by settling eliminating the chance for a free tech?

Correct. No way to get a tech from a hut popped by settling. So that's one reason to move away, but not a big enough one.

 

[Deckhand]

Didn't realize the no tech from hut by settling feature.
I thought you couldn't get a tech if you hadn't settled yet - so don't pop huts by units until you settle.
Isn't it true that huts popped by settling/borders won't yield barbarians? Can't remember the last time I saw barbarians from a hut - does BUFFY prevent that??

This map maker is more lazy than evil. Didn't even pick the player civ. Although first map I rolled had Elizabeth, nice since she has only "starred" in one botm. But I have an active Churchill game and there was something else about the map I didn't like. Oh I recall - it was ice age and map looked too much like the Churchill game. So went with random map.

Tried to give you a nice start position and an interesting map. Revealed the cows as important for settling decision and wanted all to know. Don't remember what else is around there.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Correct. No way to get a tech from a hut popped by settling. So that's one reason to move away, but not a big enough one.

Not about moving away. It's a reason to pop it with the scout instead of moving to the hill. In other words, an evil mapmaker could test the save in advance to ensure that people who pop the hut as their first move get some tech. Balance out whatever map knowledge is gained by moving to the hill.

I dare anyone to now not pop the hut with their scout...

Unless of course you don't want a tech. I recall you once preferring the cash early in the game. Antoerh scout wouldn't hurt either, possibly doubling the number of huts you hit and scouting vast lands, if we're not on a small landmass. Even XP would be good for hurrying this scout through forests...

THen again, imagine getting Sailing. Or AH! On the other hand, who wants Mysticism?. The Wheel would be cool. As would Agriculture or Mining. But we could also get Archery.

(sigh)

Or is the right analysis preventing other players from getting something we don't? After all, this is a BOTM. Do you really want to risk someone else getting Sailing while you get 25 barnacles?

But...this BOTM has events. So those barnacles might prevent a bad event...

 

[LowtherCastle]

I thought you couldn't get a tech if you hadn't settled yet - so don't pop huts by units until you settle.

Really? hm..

 

[lymond]

Pretty certain you can't get a tech before the first city is settled. I did not know or forgot that you could not get a tech from border pops. I thought I've done that before in the past, but really not sure. WT would know, so I trust him. Regardless, it has no bearing on where I would settle in this case.

Most likely the scout would get gold from the hut if he popped it first.

 

[Deckhand]

Maps! Maps for all! Come and get your free maps! Fogged forests revealed. Plains too! Maybe tundra. Get 'em here. (while they last) Maybe even see some coast.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I thought a city could pop a tech

I'd place my wager saying that a Settler who settles a City adjacent to a Hut can pop a Tech from a Hut.

You're definitely right that you can't get a Tech without first having settled a City, but since the Settler settles first and then the Cultural Borders appear, which then pop the Hut, the rule about not getting a Tech does not seem to apply here, since you have already settled.


As for getting Barbs from Huts, you need to first have founded a capital and the Hut has to be 8 or more distance away from your capital.

To calculate the distance, start from your capital and then count the number of diagonal squares to the Hut so that you are either vertically or horizontally on the same line as the Hut, then count the number of vertical or horizontal squares remaining to get on the same square as the Hut. Diagonal distance is multiplied by 1.5, while horizontal or vertical distance does not need to get multiplied by anything. You floor the amount, i.e. you truncate the decimal value, if there is one.

Examples of Hut locations where you cannot pop Barbs:
The Hut is 4 NE + 1 E of your capital: 4 * 1.5 + 1 = 6 + 1 = 7; 7 < 8
The Hut is 3 NW + 3 N of your capital: 3 * 1.5 + 3 = 4.5 + 3 = 7.5; floored to 7; 7 < 8
The Hut is 1 SE + 6 E of your capital: 1 * 1.5 + 6 = 1.5 + 6 = 7.5; floored to 7; 7 < 8

I'm not sure whether there is a special rule for the human player where a Hut that you'd "saved" near to your capital for later, which an AI beats you to popping (but is 8 or more distance away from their capital), cannot pop Barbs, but I have done the reverse, popping Barbs just outside of the big-fat-cross of an AI's capital, so do beware of an AI popping a Hut that you save, just in case.

Or the goal was simply to have everyone start the same for a change.

One could also settle on top of the dry, Non-Riverside Corn, leaving a second coastal City location to grab the Cow (2 W of the P Cow) and a lot of Grassland squares without Jungles on them to build Cottages without Whipping, and then build The Great Lighthouse in the capital via the Ivory and 2 GH Mines, using the avoidance of Bronze Working to allow for grabbing Pottery, Sailing, and Masonry.

Maybe it is not the most ingenious of plans, but it leaves at least one possible alternative to settling on the Ivory, while players who choose to settle on the Ivory may find their second City ending up in the Jungle.


Working a Riverside Ivory square is actually a pretty decent early-game square for a Non-Hall-of-Fame game where you aren't getting Gold or Gems nearby and you want some source of Commerce, especially when you already start off knowing Hunting (which is required to build a Camp on the Ivory), so even if you don't settle on the Corn, it's not necesarilly a given for players to settle on the Ivory.

For example, someone might choose to settle on the GH that is 1 E of the Ivory, which also appears to be coastal. You'd then leave the Clam for what appears to be an island to the west, giving you some additional early Commerce (assuming that you get Sailing for a Galley to actually settle on the island) via the oveseas trading bonus.


Then, there's the chance of someone using their Settler to run around popping Huts, since the Map Maker appears to have broken from the tradition of removing nearby Huts in an XOTM game, meaning that there might be more nearby.

That approach also gives the Scout more freedom to roam around, rather than babysitting the Settler for an "optimal, quickly-settled" capital, thereby earning you two fast-moving Hut-poppers right from Turn 0.


Plus, not everyone who plays XOTM seems to have the same "optimisation" criteria as many SGTOM players have for their capitals.


So, I'd say that the only really likely way for everyone to settle in the same location is when we have only a small number of players submitting a given game.




If you are serious about settling on the Ivory, which appears to be a decent choice given what we currently see, I'd actually suggest sending the Scout 1 SE P Riv Ivory, 1 E GH (2 S of the P Cow), to reveal as much about the eastern coast as you can. If there is another seafood Resource there, you can settle close to it, leaving the Clam to be used by a City on what appears to be an island to the west. But, if you orphan a Fish Resource by settling on the Ivory, there might not be another island to get it back.

Given that the Map Maker didn't modify the map, tales of sending the Scout 2 NE sound like chasing after Fools' Gold. Of course, more Huts than normally possibly being nearby, these Fools might be onto something, or at least could earn some extra Fools' Gold.


Settling 1 N on the GH Riv For could also be reasonably considered. While you burn a Forest, you get all of the visible Resources and some Cottageable Grassland squares that might otherwise mostly go unused due to the lack of visible Food Resources near to there and the close proximity of the Jungle to the north.

Two benefits being that you can send the Scout to fetch Huts immediately and that you won't have the possibility of orphaning any seafood Resources to the south-east.

 

[Deckhand]

Great analysis. Thanks for the hut info.

Now my curiosity is piqued and I'm going to look at the save. Which you all can do very soon.

 

[neilmeister]

I honestly can't remember a game where everyone settled in the same place, even ones where I started the player on a PH Marble with a corn & gold 2 tiles east & west.... there is always a least one player that goes off wandering.

I like a riverside phant, especially as we already start with Hunting.... better than a GH mine. But, having said that, it does look like the obvious tile to settle on