[BTS] News: BOTM 223 - Aztec, Deity - Starts Oct 19

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 223: Montezuma of Aztec.

[img=right]https://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm223civ.jpg[/img]

It's that time again... the middle-of-the-month 'hard' game series has cycled up to deity level! And it's an arboria map, which means loads of forest to chop - if the AI doesn't chop it first! On the up side, the map is very suited to your unique unit! Go conquer 'em!

I've modified the map slightly so it's now possible to circumnavigate. And whichever Civ is first to make use of galleys might discover something to their advantage. Since this is deity, I'm going to guess that won't be you!

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

Map settings:
Map: Arboria
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
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)
This is a very powerful building because it reduces the anger duration from whipping to 5 turns. And it costs less than the courthouse - 90 hammers vs. 120 hammers.

Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:
You play on emperor level. The AI still starts with deity units, but to even things up a little, you also have a 2nd settler, and an archer (both starting on the same tile as the first settler)

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 19 Oct 2021, 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 Nov 2021.

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.

 

[jnebbe]

Interesting adventure class bonus... you probably don't want to settle the 2nd city on T0, maybe capital slowbuilds 2 workers, settle 2nd city t30? Doesn't help that Monty has the worst starting techs in the game imo

 

[Powerfaker]

On an Arboria map with many deer to improve you would think it would be great to start with hunting. Unfortunately nothing of that is visble. On deity I prefer not to gamble on moving multiple turns. With nice forested piggy tile in first ring + corn I think SIP. A lot of nice river all around as well.
Probably chop 2nd worker before settler even with this one city. Starting with 2 cities you could produce 4 workers first......

Despite the silver I wouldn't be surprised if turns rushed by too fast for the deployment of jaguar warriors. It would be nice to do at least one war and get a 10XP unit in the process, so you can build HE before you produce a real army.

 

[jnebbe]

That's true, I generated an Arboria for the first time ever and there are indeed lots of deer.
I'm not sure about what strategy you'd want, I'm thinking about putting every chop into workers/settlers and also failgold, will crash economy hard but rely on failgold to still tech at decent rate? Idk I've never liked catapults+swords/axes much

 

[WastinTime]

I know you need BW to mine the silver, but do you need it to pasture the pig?

 

[High King J.J.]

I know you need BW to mine the silver, but do you need it to pasture the pig?

You need BW to chop. Since the pig is forested like the silver, you need BW to buld improvements that require a cleared tile.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I know you need BW to mine the silver, but do you need it to pasture the pig?

This game looks really hard. Tempting to settle on the coast and find that mysterious gloryland or whatever it is.

 

[MirrorGuard]

Hard game indeed. No elephant no gold no gem? Perhaps Aztec uu and ub would make the game a bit easier.

 

[LowtherCastle]

No challenger save??????!!!!!!!!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

No challenger save??????!!!!!!!!

The contender save is already deity, and you can judge for yourself how promising the starting screenshot looks, or doesn't look. I'm not sure there was any significant extra handicap I could add to make a challenger save without making it all but impossible to win

 

[DynamicSpirit]

The contender save is already deity, and you can judge for yourself how promising the starting screenshot looks, or doesn't look. I'm not sure there was any significant extra handicap I could add to make a challenger save without making it all but impossible to win

I just realised I answered @LowtherCastle completely seriously, but LC was very likely joking

Anyway, spoiler threads are open

 

[dontworryabouttsunami]

I'll take a crack at Deity for this one. A resourceless UU sounds pretty nice for that. Hopefully it can kind of compensate for the slow start we're going to get here. Looks hard to avoid idle worker turns. I'm thinking of going immediately Mining -> BW while building Warriors, and hopefully we can steal a Worker and use him to chop out another one. Then Agri and straight for IW. The Silver should be enough to get us that far without Pottery. We can work the Corn and the Silver and chop Jaguars and steal some more Workers and hopefully even some cities off someone. Sounds pretty unconventional but it looks like it's called for here maybe???

 

[Pangaea]

Possibly the worst unique unit in the game -- weaker than the unit it replaces. Being resourceless may be useful tho, depends what is around us. Deity kinda scares me, so not sure I will dare play this. Arboria also tends to be quite boring due to the low resource variance. Deer, silver and gems, but not much else from what I recall. Often a pain with happiness. Unless I mix it up with another cold map script.

 

[krikav]

Possibly the worst unique unit in the game -- weaker than the unit it replaces. Being resourceless may be useful tho, depends what is around us. Deity kinda scares me, so not sure I will dare play this. Arboria also tends to be quite boring due to the low resource variance. Deer, silver and gems, but not much else from what I recall. Often a pain with happiness. Unless I mix it up with another cold map script.

I think thats borialis, only tundra and millions of deer everywhere.
I think this map script is very well suited to the jaguar with all the forest around. Just have to get 5xp to get woody3 and first strikes+forest attack

 

[Pangaea]

Yes, that is correct, I was thinking about Boreal. Rolled a few Arboria now to check. A thousand Deer, and grasslands all over. Still missing quite a few resource from what I could tell, but not as bad as Boreal.

SIP is safe I suppose, but there is also the daring option of settling on silver. Risky, tho, considering the only food we can see is covered in forest and thus unusable from the get go. Looks like there is coast west, so settling 1W could risk wasting seafood. SIP looks like a fine enough choice, with loads of river tiles for later.

Can hope for a squishy target nearby, but time may fly too fast for those fairly sucky 5-strength units of ours. Woodie3 is nice for fast movement, but at the end of the day that forest attack bonus is just like attack on a naked tile, and we're still left with a 5-strength unit. We may be better served with CR. Plus catas. Well, that's not an easy proposition on Deity, but the thought it nice.

 

[Fippy]

Problem with Jaguars is they are still just 2 movement on roads, which can easily be in place at that point so..
i find CR1 + 10% + c1 + woody2 makes a good attacking unit despite 5str, but forest movement sounds much better on paper than it looks in game.