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[BTS] News: BOTM 229 - Ragnar, Deity - Starts 15 Jan!

DynamicSpirit

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BOTM 229: Ragnar of Vikings.

[img=right]https://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm229civ.jpg[/img]

How do you think the Vikings will fare on deity level? This is your chance to find out! As a small gift, you start with a workboat instead of as well as the usual settler and warrior

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

Map settings:
Map: Fractal
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Tropical
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N


Ragnar is Financial and Aggressive, and you start with Fishing and Hunting.

The Financial trait gives +1 commerce on any plot that already has at least 2 commerce

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

Unique unit: Berserker (replaces Maceman)
True to the seafaring nature of the Vikings, the beserker starts with the amphibious promotion, which removes the combat penalty for attacking directly from a boat or across a river. It also has +10% city attack strength.

Unique Building: Trading Post (replaces Lighthouse)
The trading post gives a free navigation I promotion to water units built in its city. Very useful for exploring or for coastal invasions!

Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:
You play on emperor difficulty (but the AI still starts with deity level starting units, so it'll probably be a pretty tough emperor).

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 Jan 2022, 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 Feb 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.
 
Ooooph, Deity. Scary! :shifty:

Unfortunate we can't get to one of the PHs north of the lake on T0, but with a starting workboat (thanks!!), it's probably more popular and wise to settle on the PH the scout is standing on. Risk of wasting seafood to the south, but the scout can check out that on T0 for us. Shame to lose the gold, but a city 1N of pigs can pick it up later, so it's not terrible. Hopefully no AIs will steal it. Speaking of... maybe it's wrong to settle on the coast, and therefore claim less land? Hmmm. What do the Deity experts say?? Can use the workboat for scouting then, at least for a good while.

Berserkers are awesome, but not sure how much utility we can get from them on Deity. Longbows eat them up without breaking a sweat. Even more so behind e.g. 40-60% culture + hill.

Thanks for the Fractal map btw, that will make things unpredictable. I always love the early exploration, finding out what the land looks like, who the AIs are, how many are contactable pre-Optics, etc. :thumbsup:
 
I'm tempted to settle 2N of the scout. We get the gold (and cows) immediately; one or more lake tiles to partially make up for less food than we'd get by settling the scout's tile (and if that isn't a lake tile to the north, then we get convenient access to the northern ocean); it might help block off land to our south for later settling. AH first, to get cows and maybe reveal horsies for early raiding (he says, eyeing open grass and plains tiles to the S and E)? Or Mining for the gold? Yeah, probably Mining first. The scout can look around for raiding targets--if there's nobody close enough, concentrate on growth techs and REX. Discover and settle balmy islands with lots of resources and cities defended by a single barb warrior ripe for attack by berzerkers. Yup, that sounds like a fail-proof plan. ;)
 
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Hmm. Would you really spend two turns moving the settler when not 'rewarded' with an improved city centre tile?

SE can also be an option. Many mystery tiles, could be decent for cottages, but ofc loses the gold again. Depends a bit on what the scout sees on the south coast, but it looks like there is more land southwards, just not on the western tip.

Edit: Anyway, one of the reasons I like moving to where the scout is located, is the starting workboat. Means we have an excellent food source in T6 once borders expand. Much quicker than by first building a worker and then improving pigs or corn. Barb galleys can't ruin it either, which is nice once we get to T60-70.
 
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I also like settling SE. Mainly because it secures at least 3 great future cities: (1) N or 2N of the Wheat, (2) N or NW of Pig, (3) either SE of Cow or between Cow and Gems (depending on location of cities 1 & 2).

For early settler production both sites seem to give the same yield, assuming settler at size 2. (Though settling on the coast you will have an extra commerce while working the Fish versus wet Corn and mined Pigs.) Although SE does not have the PH hammer bonus, I think it is compensated early game by the increased amount of forests to chop. SE also allows you to work the lake to speed up BW by a turn (maybe 2?).

Downside of SE is that the workboat seems pretty useless (besides scouting) until a coastal city expands borders. That might take a while.

Final thought: settling PH might result in loss of worker turns, assuming worker first and researching AG, Mining, BW. WB first maybe? Interesting start to try out a few scenario's with Worldbuilder.
 
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Will simply jump in and make mistakes instead of playing this as a SGOTM.

Settle on scout looks most tempting, but a clear positive with SE is that it fogbusts a lot more land, and barb are always a big problem on Deity. Some stuff may depend on what the scout sees on the south coast too. Don't think moving him anywhere else makes sense. If there is seafood south, settling on that PH is less tempting.
 
I hesitate to settle without the gold on Deity. Sometimes there's more gold near gold. Starting with a fish is tempting
 
Hmm. Would you really spend two turns moving the settler [to 2N of the scout] when not 'rewarded' with an improved city centre tile?
For gold (with enough food), yes.
Anyway, one of the reasons I like moving to where the scout is located, is the starting workboat. Means we have an excellent food source in T6 once borders expand.
2N of the scout also gets this. With the bananas, you'll have 6 extra food without needing any improvements. Lighthouse and pastured cows add at least 3 more. 5+ hills to mine and 6+ forests to chop in the BFC. South of the corn looks promising for later, but there's too much unseen there compared to visible gold in them thar hills.
 
Thanks for pushing this up to start on the 15th again, particularly when that coincides with a weekend (and a cold one, at that)!

Deity is still too much for me, so I'll take the "pretty tough emperor" game. Still debating between the two coastal settling sites that have already been suggested, but I'll probably go for the PH on the river.
 
Can also just settle on the corn. who needs wet corn anyway? :lol:

Gold, food, rivers, fogbusting. The whole lot :D

Edit: Oh crap, my sight is horsehockeye. That loses gold. Oh no. :lol:
 
Note: if you haven't settled NW of the cow yet, you can block/prevent all barb attacks from the NW with one unit parked on the cow.
 
Cluster with wet corn, pigs (can be mined early) and ofc gold maybe looks too tempting.
Boat is actually valuable if not used, an invincible fog buster. Along with a scout who can move into position quickly as well.

But a test game could really reveal interesting stuff here.
 
Whether gold west is coastal or Lake is pretty important. If coastal, gold south can be settled with five resource tiles and still build a lighthouse. Then again, gold south west could be settled as a canal city.
 
Boat is actually valuable if not used, an invincible fog buster.
Limited by closed borders possibly. Early examination of the demo screen can reveal the likely number of creative players and The number of landlocked or coastal.

another crucial bit of T0 information is the number of land tiles on the map.
 
Whether gold west is coastal or Lake is pretty important. If coastal, gold south can be settled with five resource tiles and still build a lighthouse. Then again, gold south west could be settled as a canal city.
Pretty sure it's a lake. Looks like that from the larger image. Which I suppose is another positive with settling SW of gold. Two more 3-food tiles with LH. Feels wrong to me to move away from pig + corn, but maybe it's the right move, despite 'wasting' two turns? Hmm. No idea how to start this blasted map.
 
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Hmm why not aim for the plains hills north.
Costs no turns on the worker with 2:hammers: city tile, keeps fresh water and grabs unknown land (might be more gold or so) while keeping all 3 power tiles.
Without a gifted workboat i wouldn't think twice about this move prolly..all other visible tiles i'd consider distraction for capital founding.
 
Allow me to ask a question that is not about this game in particular, but Deity-related: is it possible to steal workers in the early game and get away with it or is it just plain suicide at this level?
I ask because on IMM I rely a lot on this tactic but have no real experience on Deity.
 
Worker steal is very common for HoF games.
On regular games (with weaker capitals) it can be risky and requires thinking about what will happen if you cannot get peace.
Their starting Archers stay in cities, but new ones might visit ;)
Steal from Gandhi and don't from Shaka, maybe? :)
 
Hmm why not aim for the plains hills north.
Costs no turns on the worker with 2:hammers: city tile, keeps fresh water and grabs unknown land (might be more gold or so) while keeping all 3 power tiles.
Without a gifted workboat i wouldn't think twice about this move prolly..all other visible tiles i'd consider distraction for capital founding.
I'm back to thinking more about this too (also before seeing your post). Gain back the turns moving, and it will hopefully be a capable capital with gold+2 food+whatever in the fog.

Almost a shame about the workboat in that case. Will take a long time to get one of those fish with secondary cities, and it will pretty soon cost us maintenance. Nice for fogbusting or exploration, but that's about it.

Anyway, seems like the game is out now, so maybe time to make some mistakes. Like Seraiel, I don't want to play these games like an SGOTM with worldbuildered tests for a week first. Jump in, get kicked in the face, try to survive.

...which kinda reminds me. Maybe not a terrible idea to have a city on a hill here.
 
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