News: BOTM 245 - Isabella, Immortal - Starts December 3, 2022

MarleysGh0st

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BOTM 245: Isabella of Spain.



Queen Isabella, you have been blessed by God! He has spoken to you, and imparted the knowledge of Theology to you (in addition to your normal starting techs). With this knowledge, Christianity will be founded in Spain. Go and spread His Word throughout the lands! But beware, for your rivals have also spoken to their God(s) and have been granted the knowledge to found their religions. They may oppose you, but do not allow their efforts to block your Holy Work!

Game settings:
Playing as: Isabella of Spain
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Immortal
Starting Era:
Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions:
All enabled. Espionage Cultural Victories count as Cultural Victories.

Map settings:
Map: Archipelago
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Low
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N


Isabella is Spiritual and Expansive, and you start with Mysticism, Theology and Fishing.

The Spiritual trait gives no anarchy and double production speed of Temple and Cristo Redentor

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

Unique unit: Conquistador (replaces Cuirassier)
The conquistador has +50% strength against melee units - very useful, provided you can build them before the enemy reaches the gunpowder age! And unlike the cuirassier, the conquistador receives defensive bonuses.

Unique Building: Citadel (replaces Castle)
Besides the usual benefits of the castle, the citadel gives +5XP to siege weapons built in the city.

Starting screenshot

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



Adventurer Class bonuses:
You play on Monarch level, but the AI still have Immortal level starting units.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
You play on Deity level. The AI still only have Immortal level starting units.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 3 Dec 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 3 Jan 2023 15 Jan 2023.

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.
 
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This is the third in a series of games where I give you a tech that unlocks a civilization's favored civic from the start. Since, in this case, that tech also founds a religion, I decided to make things fairer by giving each of the AI a tech for founding their religions, too. You might note that some of those techs are less expensive/valuable than your tech, while some are more so. One can never be completely fair! :mischief:

In my play-testing, the religions are all founded at the end of Turn 5, 3800 BC.

With BOTM 243 ending tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that this game was ready to start on this weekend. Since I'm late in posting it, I'm afraid that doesn't leave a lot of time for pre-game discussions. If you want to continue those discussions, you're free, of course, to delay starting your own game while you talk about it.

Since you've all exceeded my expectations in the other games I've hosted, I decided not to tweak the map because I was worried it might be too hard. I did regenerate the map a number of times during play-testing until I found one I liked, but the resulting land and resource placement is entirely as the computer generated it. And there are no Humbabas!

Merry Christmas! :)
 
Level is immortal. I'm mortal. Go figure. Any attempt to reach immortality will be prevented by the Vorlons. Remember the Deathwalker? "Because you are not ready for immortality."
At least there's stone. On this rock I will build my... wait, there's no vibranium in Civ4.
I wonder how large our island is. Are the pagans close by to convert? We need to mount a Crusade... wait, the Drakh are still in Z'ha'dum serving the Shadows and we haven't got any White Stars.
Well we have dry corn. Maybe go "I am the great Cornholio from Titicaca." But the marines of Sulaco didn't like corn bread... "Bishop, do the thing with the knife!"
I guess I'll try this before I die. Unless the server goes AWOL again...
 
Since we are Isabella, the Mortally Ugly (see pic), we would do better to found Islam and wear the corresponding clothes. Be that as it may, I will do my best to spread the Inquisition, war, bubonic plague, and other goodies. .
 
Looks like tough teching initially. Skip AH and maybe BW too for a while. Get 3 powertiles up through Agri -Mining - Masonry. Then Sailing - Wheel, produce failgold/Moai (I love Moai). and go GLH.
Religion nice for happiness and hopefully borderpops if it will spread. We are spiritual, nice for droppping in/out of religion later and get tech trades. Everybody in different Religion promises much hostilities among AI. Spreading the faith will require conquest probably.
 
Level is immortal. I'm mortal. Go figure.

For mere mortals, the Adventurer/Monarch save is always an option.

If we have more server troubles, I'll post the game saves here so everyone can get started. For now, let's cross our fingers that the server keeps working.
 
:borg:? You mean there are Swedish out there? :viking:
But yes, I guess we need to :assimilate: May their resistance be futile.
 
It appears that we may be having problems with our servers, again. In case anyone still needs to download the starting saves for this game, I'm posting them all here.
 

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Indeed! :lol: Let's try with this question too: :mischief:

@MarleysGh0st Can I write in the final spoiler thread? I finished my game but can't submit yet because of the server issues.


EDIT: GOTM site is back up (at least for now) and I could upload the game. :)

Sorry for my delay in responding. As you have already noticed, administrators far above my pay grade have already resolved the issue.

Just in case this problem occurs again, I'll say that it would be perfectly fine to post a final spoiler under these conditions. We are all on our honor not to read the spoiler threads before the proper time. Writing a final spoiler when you've finished a game but are prevented from uploading it is a just a technical issue.

Now it's my turn to ask a question. If all of these service outages have just been to "welcome" me to the staff, when can I expect the hazing to stop? :D
 
Sorry for my delay in responding. As you have already noticed, administrators far above my pay grade have already resolved the issue.

Just in case this problem occurs again, I'll say that it would be perfectly fine to post a final spoiler under these conditions. We are all on our honor not to read the spoiler threads before the proper time. Writing a final spoiler when you've finished a game but are prevented from uploading it is a just a technical issue.

Now it's my turn to ask a question. If all of these service outages have just been to "welcome" me to the staff, when can I expect the hazing to stop? :D

Yeah, it is very unusual for servers to be down so often and for so long. I did not submit several unfinished games because of that. Is it OK to send save to a game host in situation like that? when the server is down, normally the next time I check is several days later which is sometimes past deadline already.
 
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