[BTS] News: BOTM 225 - Portugal, Emperor - Starts 15 Nov

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 225: Joao of Portugal.

Since as the last game forced only peaceful victory types, I thought I should do something to prevent peaceful victories this time. So you start the game with a few wars to deal with... But it's not all bad - to help you get started, I've given you an extra archer, in case you'd like some extra early game city defence. And Joao can build carracks, so if you can get as far as optics, you might be able to invade any overseas civs before they can build galleons. Good luck!

Game settings:
Playing as: Joao of Portugal
Rivals: 4 AIs
Difficulty: Emperor
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: Always war, no goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Archipelago (snaky continents)
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: High
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N


Joao is Imperialistic and Expansive, and you start with Fishing and Mining.

The Imperialistic trait gives +100% great general emergence and +50% production of settlers

The Expansive trait gives +2 health/city and +25% hammers for worker production and double production speed of Granary and Harbor

Unique unit: Carrack (replaces Caravel)
The carrack can carry any land units: Unlike the caravel, it's not restricted to non-combat units like missionaries and explorers. So you can use it to launch overseas invasions pre-astronomy. It also has greater capacity than a caravel, being able to carry 2 units!

Unique Building: Feitoria (replaces Customs House)
The feitoria gives +1 commerce in each worked water tile, as well as the usual customs house benefit of +100% foreign trade route yield. Note that both buildings require a harbour to be built first.

Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:
You play the game on prince level (but the AI still starts with emperor level starting units)

Challenger Class Equalizers:
You play the game on deity level (but the AI still starts with emperor level starting units)

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 Nov 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 15 Dec 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.

 

[Powerfaker]

Lovely. Maybe early Sailing + worker catching? Though AI may have been gifted defences too? And Joao probably doesn't need to with his traits.

Nice start, food/forests/happy+war resource. as often commerce/research may be the trouble aspect, but water tiles can help with that
I'm thinking settle 1S => PH-forest available to profit from Exp bonus on 1st worker, towards river, off the hill which is a nice production tile for Imp/Exp leaders, corns auto irrigated after CS.

 

[lymond]

This looks fun! May have to shake off the rust

too bad we can't see S on Turn 0, but settling on jumbos looks feasible.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Interesting! Anyone going to try for a culture victory in this game?

In Always War, is everyone at war with everyone else, or is it all the AI at war with the human player, only? Can we get AI to capitulate, or is it war to the death? If the latter, we're not going to have much foreign trade for our feitorias.

 

[Powerfaker]

It's just you (or any of us) against the world. No capitulations, vassals/colonies will break free immediately.
Island trade routes will have to do. Combo with GLH should still be pretty good.

I think AW setting will encourage AI more to build fleets on a map like this. So this could get challenging (although not all that resolute, they're always eager to mess you up)

 

[Pangaea]

all the AI at war with the human player, only?

It's this. When you encounter an AI, war is automatically initiated. So you technically start at peace with the entire world. Won't last long, tho! All AIs are at peace with each other, but I suppose they could in theory start wars with each other. At least until they have met you. It's possible to capitulate AIs, but you need to beat them down first, as per usual.

Edit: got ninja'd

 

[Pangaea]

Also have to say that Always War on Emperor difficulty level is pretty rough. We're protected by the seas here, though, so perhaps that makes it manageable. Unlikely to get streams of units attacking our cities non-stop.

 

[Xcalibrator]

This should be a fun one, and I appreciate the Small map--might actually finish! Hard pass on Deity.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Also have to say that Always War on Emperor difficulty level is pretty rough. We're protected by the seas here, though, so perhaps that makes it manageable. Unlikely to get streams of units attacking our cities non-stop.

Well, as a mapmaker, I want games to be enjoyable, so I'm probably not going to deliberately give you a map that I think is impossible for a normal player to win (although I have of course got it wrong on occasions)

 

[WastinTime]

Interesting! Anyone going to try for a culture victory in this game?

Go for Diplo. I think I did that in a previous always war game. When was the last one?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Go for Diplo. I think I did that in a previous always war game. When was the last one?

That would've been BOTM 195 in June 2020 that you won your always-war religious victory.

 

[LowtherCastle]

It's just you (or any of us) against the world. No capitulations, vassals/colonies will break free immediately.
Island trade routes will have to do. Combo with GLH should still be pretty good.

I think AW setting will encourage AI more to build fleets on a map like this. So this could get challenging (although not all that resolute, they're always eager to mess you up)

The 1f1c Ocean tile 2s2e of the archer has to have at least one coastal tile south or east and accessible land one tile beyond. Since this is snakey continents most likely that is a different landmass. Good for the GLH.

 

[Pangaea]

Settling 1S appears to mostly get more plains tiles, but the tile 2SW of current settler location looks interesting. No forest there, and it may have a resource? But otherwise I'm thinking that SIP is a fine option here. Kinda shame to kill a green hill, but it's nice to be on a hill just in case things get hot. And we can settle 1N of the elephants and steal a corn. But hopefully there is seafood. A nice thing with the extra archer is that he can check out the coast, while the warrior for example moves NW. Settling on the ivory is an option, especially if there is seafood.

If nothing revolutionary shows up, I'm probably leaning towards just SIP. If nothing else, the 3H tile is nice for that first worker.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Spoiler threads are up!

 

[Fernão de Magalhães]

Hi, I'm new to Civ IV GOTM. Can anyone tell me where I can find information about the meaning of numbers and symbols on my PC screen image? I have 2 game manuals: the original manual and also the "Reference Guide", but this is different.
I don't know how to put the image here. Maybe it's not possible...

 

[lymond]

Hi, I'm new to Civ IV GOTM. Can anyone tell me where I can find information about the meaning of numbers and symbols on my PC screen image? I have 2 game manuals: the original manual and also the "Reference Guide", but this is different.
I don't know how to put the image here. Maybe it's not possible...

Probably the stuff you are referring to is BUG related, a UI mod included in the BUFFY mod. For images, you can do one of two things. Attach the image directly to your post - then copy the attach image link into your post. Or my preferred method is to use a image hosting site like imgur.com. Upload the image to the site and then copy the text in the BBCODE field and past directly into your post.

Pics are better if taken as screenshots on the PC itself using the printscreen button. IF you have the Steam version, Steam also has a hotkey for screenshots.

Also, note that there is a BUG help file located here:

Beyond The Sword\Mods\BUFFY-3.19.005\Info

It can provide some help with understanding the mod features.

 

[Pangaea]

Please remove that image as it shows spoiler information, in the form of AIs.

As for the information:
-the spy icon means you have more spy points on that AI than they do on you
-the ratio (0.1 etc) is your power compared to the AI in question, in this case 10%
-the tech that AI is researching, and the turns remaining until they have the tech (this can go a little up and down depending on various factors)
-the AIs view of you (they are quite upset)
-amount of cities they have
-the crossed swords means you are at war with that AI

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Hi @Fernão de Magalhães, thanks for removing those images, and @Pangaea thanks for picking that up

For reference, if you have any similar questions about the game UI, in the future and want to show a screenshot, you can just start a random non-GOTM game and show a screenshot of that. Or use a screenshot from an old game where the competition has now closed. Or of course, ask in either of the spoiler threads, once you've reached the requirement for posting in each spoiler.

 

[Pangaea]

What's the deadline here again? About 3 days left? I've been preoccupied with about 20 other games recently.

 

[Fippy]

by 15 Dec 2021.