[BTS] News: BOTM 260: Asoka, Noble - Starts October 23, 2023

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 260: Asoka of India.

Enjoy playing as Asoka of India at Noble difficulty level on an randomly spawned Inland Sea map unaltered by the map-maker.

Game settings:
Playing as: Asoka of India
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Noble
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No barbarians, no tech brokering, no goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Inland Sea
World Wrap: None
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -60°S to 60°N


Asoka is Spiritual and Organized, and you start with Mysticism and Mining.

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

The Organized trait gives -50% civic upkeep and double production speed of Courthouse, Factory and Lighthouse

Unique unit: Fast Worker (replaces Worker)
The fast worker has 3 movement points against the ordinary worker's 2 - making the fast worker one of the fastest-moving land units in the game!

Unique Building: Mausoleum (replaces Jail)
The mausoleum gives +2 happiness out of the box, to add to the espionage and war-weariness benefits of the jail.

Starting screenshot

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






Challenger Class Equalizers:
You will play at Immortal difficulty level though the AI will have Noble level starting units.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 23 Oct 2023, 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 23 Nov 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.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Hmmm.... 1NW looks to me like a much better long-term location for a capital, but is it worth losing the forest and a turn by moving? (As well as the risk of losing food if there's any in the hidden tiles to the South)

 

[High King J.J.]

This is Noble, I'd lose a turn or several to get a good capital site. Of course I won't be competing with the best for earliest win, just against the AI that on Noble will (hopefully) be almost as incompetent as I am.
I'll let the warrior scout some first. Is that a forested grassland hill in the north? Warrior goes N, NW to get a view while settler goes for the gold to look around on the first turn. Second turn will have better intel on terrain and will settle where it looks best. Maybe 1N of gold? Enough floodplains will offset losing the (holy) cow from the BFC.
This time a (fast) worker will be an early priority with the gold on river and mining already learned.
Let's see how fast I can lose all hope and abandon game...

 

[Frederiksberg]

Hmmm.... 1NW looks to me like a much better long-term location for a capital, but is it worth losing the forest and a turn by moving? (As well as the risk of losing food if there's any in the hidden tiles to the South)

Maybe even continue north and settle where the warrior is to get away from the plains tiles in the south. Warrior can scout to the north first.

Good leader traits, good UU, river and gold in the FC. What's not to like about this start.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Luv me a fast twerker. And organized for city spamming.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Hmmm.... 1NW looks to me like a much better long-term location for a capital, but is it worth losing the forest and a turn by moving? (As well as the risk of losing food if there's any in the hidden tiles to the South)

The cattle have river to the north east so one north might be a decent place to settle. More forest, and 1 less flood plain unhealthiness. I would like another food resource if possible. If not, then more fp is probably better.

Also tempting is peeking to see if there’s a second river gold.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Maybe even continue north and settle where the warrior is to get away from the plains tiles in the south. Warrior can scout to the north first.

Yes that probably would be a good place. Loads of commerce! The trouble is, I'm allergic to destroying flood plains - so I suffer immense psychological harm if I settle on one

I think I'll move the warrior to the hill NE to give a good view of the landscape and then decide.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

The game doesn't start until Monday. That mean I have to pretend I'll accomplish something useful this weekend.

The square that the warrior is standing on looks tempting to me. You keep the gold and the cow, pick up some hills, pick up more floodplains, what's not to like? I certainly hope health won't be a problem on Noble. So, settler WNW while the warrior goes NW? I think I'd more likely shift my city site to the west than the east, if the scouting uncovers more resources.

 

[High King J.J.]

The game doesn't start until Monday. That mean I have to pretend I'll accomplish something useful this weekend.

Got the same problem.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I guess one question is, how many floodplains can you take in the BFC at noble level before it starts hurting your city's health below size 4. I can't remember how you calculate that. Any risk of that could slow our early growth too much. Hurting health above size 4 is probably OK because we'll have started hooking up resources to add health before we want the city to be that big for long periods.