[BTS] News: BOTM 246: Santa Claus, Noble: Starts 25 Dec

DynamicSpirit

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Here's your Christmas present, everyone!

Since the server is down, this is a bit of a rough-and-ready game announcement. The saves for this game (Windows only) are attached to this post so you can play immediately. Or if you prefer, you can wait a couple of days so you can discuss the game in this thread first. You won't be able to submit until the GOTM server is fixed, so if you finish before it's fixed, make sure you hang on to your final save.


BOTM 246: Santa Claus of the Elves



It's time for Santa to bring gifts to the other civs. To help you along the way, you start with two reindeer (well, as close a unit to a reindeer as Civ allows ;) ) Bear in mind that the reindeer cannot enter tiles that have a resource on them, and they also cannot enter cultural borders (even your own ones). When founding a city, it could be a good idea to first make sure any nearby reindeer have somewhere they can move to. Also, when deciding where to found your first city, don't forget to consider the unhealthiness that flood plains cause.

Circumnavigation with galleys is possible on this map.

Game settings:
Playing as: Santa Claus of the Elves (actually Ragnar of the Vikings)
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Noble (But note the nearby geography: This game is likely to play harder than noble)
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: None
Victory Conditions:
All enabled.

Map settings:
Map: Earth2 (heavily modified)
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Normal
Climate: Cold
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N

botm246large.jpg


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

To Enter the Competition:

This competition is open now. For the time being, grab the saves from the files attached to this post.

The closing date is currently scheduled for 30 Jan 2023. This may get extended if continuing BOTM server problems make submission around that date difficult.

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. Mac saves are not yet available. We hope to release them asap, but this might not be until the server is back up.

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.[/h2]
 

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Thanks, @DynamicSpirit! Unavailability of the Mac save normally improves my results, since instead of rushing to play the game I have to sandbox or test play.

I wonder what is happening to reindeers when in a freshly founded city - I assumed they would be catapulted outside, but sounds like they are destroyed?

And is Earth2 also a one with "New World"? or just vaguely earth-like?
 
Thanks, DS! :) I'm assuming those are gems 4W of the settler? Having those and a bunch of mines in our BFC seems like a good idea so I'd say we want to settle either 2W, or 1 S of there to pick up the pigs(?) in the BFC. The latter site would have 7 floodplains with at least another 2 likely for a total of probably at least 9 tiles *0.4 unhealth/floodplain = 3.6 --> 3 unhealthiness (before the river fresh water health bonus); the 2W-of-settler site starts with 8 floodplains visible and would likely pick even a couple/few more than the other site, and wouldn't be able to hook up pigs until the second border pop, which could be a problem. I think I'll move 1NW for a look before deciding where to settle, but I'm leaning toward the southern site. Lethargy and tipsiness from food and wine haven't worn off yet so I've probably botched that analysis--I'll wait until tomorrow to begin. ;)
 
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Thanks, DS! :) I'm assuming those are gems 4W of the settler? Having those and a bunch of mines in our BFC seems like a good idea so I'd say we want to settler either 2W, or 1 S of there to pick up the pigs(?) in the BFC. The latter site would have 7 floodplains with at least another 2 likely for a total of probably at least 9 tiles *0.4 unhealth/floodplain = 3.6 --> 3 unhealthiness (before the river fresh water health bonus); the 2W-of-settler site starts with 8 floodplains visible and would likely pick even a couple/few more than the other site, and wouldn't be able to hook up pigs until the second border pop, which could be a problem. I think I'll move 1NW for a look before deciding where to settle, but I'm leaning toward the southern site. Lethargy and tipsiness from food and wine haven't worn off yet so I've probably botched that analysis--I'll wait until tomorrow to begin. ;)

I also wondered what the Western resource is - my guess is silver. Southern animals are actually sheep - but I also thought pigs for some reason, until comparing graphics in-game.
 
I also wondered what the Western resource is - my guess is silver. Southern animals are actually sheep - but I also thought pigs for some reason, until comparing graphics in-game.

Correct. Sorry, I took the screenshot without resource bubbles. The settler is standing on deer, and you see sheep to the South and silver to the West.
 
I wonder what is happening to reindeers when in a freshly founded city - I assumed they would be catapulted outside, but sounds like they are destroyed?

They don't get destroyed or catapulted when you found a city, but you cannot move them to a 'forbidden' tile. If you found a city that puts a reindeer just inside the cultural borders, then the reindeer will only be able to move to adjacent tiles outside the borders. If you found a city with the reindeer in the city itself, then that reindeer will - so far as I can tell - never be able to move again, since all adjacent tiles will be within cultural borders and therefore forbidden.
 
Thanks for posting this game, DynamicSpirit!

I think I'll move my settle SSW WSW, so my capital can use all of the visible resources. No options mean that there are goody huts, so the wolves reindeer will go exploring to see what presents they can collect. As for Santa being charged with bringing gifts to the AI, I wonder if some berserker elves can help with that? :mischief:
 
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Thanks for posting this game, DynamicSpirit!

I think I'll move my settle SSW, so my capital can use all of the visible resources. No options mean that there are goody huts, so the wolves reindeer will go exploring to see what presents they can collect.

You may want to check first that animals can enter tiles that have goody huts on them. I haven't tested that either way, but seeing as they can't enter tiles with resources on, I wouldn't be at all surprised if goody hut tiles are also impossible for them.
 
You may want to check first that animals can enter tiles that have goody huts on them. I haven't tested that either way, but seeing as they can't enter tiles with resources on, I wouldn't be at all surprised if goody hut tiles are also impossible for them.

Oh. If that's the case, the reindeer can explore the terrain for a scout to follow them. Aside from that, they'll only have value for fog busting, since they can't raid an AI's territory and they're unlikely to survive defending against barbs.
 
If the world is anything like Earth, we are on Antactica, with the map border to the south. Bah, I hate ice maps. But maybe there's Mordor we can annihilate.
Did you know you can buy artillery shells and they will write your greetings to Putler Sauron before shelling the invading orcs. Now that's a Christmas present I like.
 
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