[BTS] News: BOTM 226 - Suleiman, Monarch - Starts 1 Dec!

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 226: Suleiman of Ottomans.

It's December, and that means it's once more time for a Christmas special game! This time, your challenge is to see how well the Ottoman empire might have developed if they'd had the misfortune to start out in a slightly colder environment than they actually did. Good luck!

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

Map settings:
Map: North Pole!
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Cold
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N


Suleiman is Imperialistic and Philosophical, and you start with The Wheel and Agriculture.

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

The Philosophical trait gives +100% great people birth rate and double production speed of University

Unique unit: Janissary (replaces Musketman)
The janissary has the same base strength as the musketman, but it gets an extra +25% strength against archery, melee AND mounted units.

Unique Building: Hammam (replaces Aqueduct)
Besides the health benefits of the aquaduct, the hammam gives +2 happiness in the city in which it is built.

Starting screenshot

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




Challenger Class Equalizers:
You play on deity level (but the AI stil starts with monarch starting units)

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 1 Dec 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 3 Jan 2022.

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.

 

[High King J.J.]

Oh I hate these snow maps.

 

[Xcalibrator]

It's the most wonderful map of the year
With the barb archers yelling
And everyone telling you "Camp on the deer!"
It's the most wonderful map of the year

It's the map-happiest season of all
With those mad AI greetings and no allowed cheatings
When capitals fall
It's the map-happiest season of all

There'll be Cow-wins for coasting
And vict'ries for toasting
And galleys blocked in by the floes
There'll be scary DoW stories
And tales of the glories
Of Epic games long, long ago

It's the most wonderful map of the year
There'll be much to- and fro-ing
To find wheat for sowing
On floodplains of snow
It's the most wonderful map of the year

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Never played anything like that (North Pole +!snow). Is the whole map covered in snow?

 

[Qactus]

Brrr... I'll make sure there's a steamin hot Hammam in every city for my poor Ottomans to keep warm!

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Hmmm. Settle 1SE, for fresh water and to add the stone to our fat cross?

 

[mscellaneous]

I love Ottomans! Focus on Gunpowder and Steel (maybe free from Liberalism) and conquer the map with Janissaries and Cannons

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Hmmm. Settle 1SE, for fresh water and to add the stone to our fat cross?

Is 1S also freshwater?

 

[Pangaea]

Is 1S also freshwater?

Not 1S from the current position.

I too like SE. Would be nice with a city NE of the clams, but as long as we have room on the other side of the river, it should be okay. Improvements with all this snow everywhere takes a long while, so we may require more workers than normal. Thankfully the Turks (err, Ottomans) is a very strong civilization, and likewise with Suleiman. Strong techs and traits help, plus some very handy UB and UU.

IIRC from a similar map in the past, the snowy floodplains still give us , so being riverside with the capital is nice.

Warrior onto the stone perhaps? Probably won't see much inland, but will see a good bunch of the coast, and possible seafood. I don't see any Reindeers, so can we ride those Cows maybe?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

IIRC from a similar map in the past, the snowy floodplains still give us , so being riverside with the capital is nice.

Yes that is correct about the floodplains - each one adds 0.4 .

In case anyone is wondering: Snow-floodplains behave exactly the same way as desert-floodplains - so you can build a cottage or farm on them. The only difference is that building on snow suffers +50% worker turns to build (so, 6 turns for a cottage) where desert only adds +25% worker turns.

 

[Powerfaker]

Yeah, with all those FP's I think it matters to have fresh water. Instead of SE I prefer 1 further south on the forest. Kills a forest but not an FP. It looses the pig but that's not a strong tile here.

Great starting techs for early Pottery.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I should add a strong FYI for anyone who hasn't yet figured this: If you settle on the snow 1S, you'll have +4 straight away from the 10 flood plains (countered by +3 from the 6 forests). With no health from fresh water, that means that your city will become unhealthy at size 2, at least until you connect some health resources. Possibly not a disaster since you have cow and pig easily accessible (clam less so, until you build a coastal city) - and with 10 FP it could be a very powerful capital later on - but worth bearing in mind.

(I'm not giving anything away by saying that because you can work all that out from the starting screenshot. But pointing it out as may not be obvious to everyone.)

 

[Pangaea]

Thanks DS, good to keep in mind. From what I recall, hammers can be an issue on these maps with so many FPs. we can mine a snowy hill, but it's only 0F-3H (again, iirc), and takes a good while to improve. We may need to whip more than usual. Health bonus aside, that hill pig isn't much to write home about. It's 3F-1H I think? Meanwhile we can just work an unimproved floodplain instead of 3F-1C.

Hopefully there is corn and wheat nearby (at least one of them), to help with the health situation.

 

[Pangaea]

Another interesting option may be to settle 1E, and then on top of the stone for Mids, and possibly GLH. Depending on the map, that could be powerful. It will be easier to make some of these calls once we're able to open the map and look around a bit more carefully. Settling SW can also be an option. Though on current screenshot, think I prefer SE. AH first.

 

[MirrorGuard]

Sue is a PHI leader without fishing. This makes bulbing engineering by great scientist a lot easier.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I love these kinds of maps. Especially the icy flood plain cows.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I get that hills/ice as a base terrain has no food but can anyone explain why adding a pig resource which otherwise comes as plus one food doesn’t add a food to Hills/ice?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I get that hills/ice as a base terrain has no food but can anyone explain why adding a pig resource which otherwise comes as plus one food doesn’t add a food to Hills/ice?

That's a good question, which I hadn't thought about before. I'm not certain what the actual reason is, but I would speculate that possibly the game is doing this: Snow tiles have zero food. Making a tile a hill subtracts 1 food and adds 1 hammer, making a snow hill -1 food (which the game obviously rounds back up to zero before sticking it on the map, since -1 food would be absurd). Adding the unimproved pig takes that from -1 food back up to zero food (and the pasture will add +3 food making 3).

 

[LowtherCastle]

That's a good question, which I hadn't thought about before. I'm not certain what the actual reason is, but I would speculate that possibly the game is doing this: Snow tiles have zero food. Making a tile a hill subtracts 1 food and adds 1 hammer, making a snow hill -1 food (which the game obviously rounds back up to zero before sticking it on the map, since -1 food would be absurd). Adding the unimproved pig takes that from -1 food back up to zero food (and the pasture will add +3 food making 3).

That makes sense. I was trying to work out how the hill is a -1 food but didn’t come up with your logic. Thanks.

it also aligns to the testing I did because flatland pig ice is 1f and then making it a hill in world builder erasis that one food.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I’m curious to hear what DS says when this is over but judging from map: north pole! and what we see here I’m guessing that every single land tile is ice. If so, the +50% for every worker action is exactly negated by Hagia or serfdom.