[BTS] NEWS: BOTM 291: Louis XIV, Prince - Starts May 27

[kcd_swede]

Time for a team game! You will play as Louis XIV of France, and are allied permanently to Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire. Just to make it challenging, your teammate is a minor civilization, meaning you can't talk to them. Each continent has a similarly constructed team (1 major and 1 minor civ). And just for fun, I replaced all the copper with stone, all the iron with marble, all the horses with deer, and all the elephants with pigs. Then I felt bad and made one instance of copper, iron, horses, and elephants somewhere you'll need to cross open ocean to get to. Let's find out what happens!

Game settings:
Playing as: Louis XIV of France
Rivals: 7 AIs
Difficulty: Prince
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No barbarians, no tech brokering, no goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Custom Continents (4)
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Tropical
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N


Louis XIV is Industrious and Creative, and you start with The Wheel and Agriculture.

The Industrious trait gives +50% wonder production and double production speed of Forge

The Creative trait gives +2 culture/city each turn and double production speed of Colosseum, Library and Theatre

Unique unit: Musketeer (replaces Musketman)
The musketeer has 2 movement points, so it can move a lot faster than the musketman!

Unique Building: Salon (replaces Observatory)
Besides the science benefits of the observatory, the salon gives you a free artist.

Starting screenshot

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

Adventurer Class bonuses:
No Adventurer save.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
No Challenger save

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 27 May 2025, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

As there are some on-going issues with accessing saves from the GOTM server, I am also attaching the save to this post as of 09:00 GMT on May 28 (basically right now); you should see it as an attachment at the bottom of this thread. Have fun!!!

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 30 Jun 2025.

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.

 

[nocho]

Sounds fun, thx for stepping up once again kcd.

I guess run to construction and conquer with cats and archers.

 

[Mitchum]

Does anyone know how minor civs teammates work? I guess we can't open the diplo screen but do we share research? Do built wonders affect both teammates like they do in a normal team game? Does anyone know how to set up a test game with minor civ teammates so that we can become familiar with how they work?

I assume that by removing several strategic resources, that applies to all teams and not just our team...

EDIT: With 7 rivals, I assume that one of the "rivals" is our minor civ teammate, yes?

 

[Frederiksberg]

Great to see a new game!

I'm wondering if we will initially be at war with the other teams because we have a minor civ teammate?

 

[kcd_swede]

Does anyone know how minor civs teammates work? I guess we can't open the diplo screen but do we share research? Do built wonders affect both teammates like they do in a normal team game? Does anyone know how to set up a test game with minor civ teammates so that we can become familiar with how they work?

I assume that by removing several strategic resources, that applies to all teams and not just our team...

EDIT: With 7 rivals, I assume that one of the "rivals" is our minor civ teammate, yes?

Yes, there are 4 teams each composed of 1 major and one minor civ. Wonders do affect the whole team as per usual. If you want a test game, you can create the teams by editing the worldbuilder save (in Notepad or other text editor) to provide the same team number to your partner, and changing from MinorCiv=0 to MinorCiv=1. As minor civs, diplomacy is blocked, and you can't ask your teammate to do anything. You cannot direct their research nor trade techs to them. You can't attack them or anything... but you could allow them to be eliminated and then eliminate the conqueror. All land everywhere is equally affected by the removal of strategic resources, so whichever civ finds the resources first may have an advantage, but that will require astronomy and/or culture bridge or some other clever manipulations, by which time that advantage is probably a moot point. The minor civs are needing killing if you wish to conquer, but your teammate and you will enjoy victory when the other 6 are gone. All of this info is available in historical threads, and I only repeat it here for convenience of those who actively take part of the threads. And some of it might be wrong , though I play-tested more than I normally do. It probably is not decisive, but should require you to modify the cookie-cutter approach to strategic thinking. But playing by the seat of your pants should also be enough since it is Prince level and most of you will find it an easy win, though maybe slower than you are used to.

Tell your friends and family about this clarification of the game parameters. Or don't, and devise a way to win faster. Up to you.

 

[kcd_swede]

Great to see a new game!

I'm wondering if we will initially be at war with the other teams because we have a minor civ teammate?

No, minor civs as teammates adopt the diplomatic stance of the master civ, which you can interact with as normal. War only will occur when you or a master civ decides it is time.

 

[Mitchum]

Since the Holy Roman Empire starts with Hunting (and Mysticism), we start with those techs as well. I would have thought that our initial unit would have been a Scout and not a Warrior. Did the starting unit get changed by the EVIL kcd_swede? Or am I misunderstanding how tech sharing works in team games?

 

[LowtherCastle]

Since the Holy Roman Empire starts with Hunting (and Mysticism), we start with those techs as well. I would have thought that our initial unit would have been a Scout and not a Warrior. Did the starting unit get changed by the EVIL kcd_swede? Or am I misunderstanding how tech sharing works in team games?

I made a test game using kcd’s instructions. The wb file has separate sections defining teams and then team players. The team definition specifies the team’s starting techs. So our team will start with those two techs.

Incidentally, having two players in our team increases tech cost. As you suggested, we share techs. We even share beakers if teching the same tech, which is fair.

One detail I noticed, when both are teching the same tech and it completes, any beaker overflow goes to our teammate, at least in my setup.

 

[MirrorGuard]

Incidentally, having two players in our team increases tech cost.

How about GP points?

 

[Mitchum]

I made a test game using kcd’s instructions. The wb file has separate sections defining teams and then team players. The team definition specifies the team’s starting techs. So our team will start with those two techs.

Incidentally, having two players in our team increases tech cost. As you suggested, we share techs. We even share beakers if teching the same tech, which is fair.

One detail I noticed, when both are teching the same tech and it completes, any beaker overflow goes to our teammate, at least in my setup.

I just created a test game where I simply added the team numbers and made Charlemagne a minor civ. I did not mess with the team techs. And each leader came to the team with their normal starting techs. I guess it's possible that KCD changed that and we ONLY start with TW and Agriculture. Hmmm...

Regarding the beaker OF, did it matter who put the last few beakers into the tech? It seems odd that our teammate would always get the overflow.

I'll see if I can test the GPP but I think you're suggesting that if he gets the 100 gpp great person, does our first great person cost 100 gpp or 200 gpp.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I just created a test game where I simply added the team numbers and made Charlemagne a minor civ. I did not mess with the team techs. And each leader came to the team with their normal starting techs. I guess it's possible that KCD changed that and we ONLY start with TW and Agriculture. Hmmm...

Regarding the beaker OF, did it matter who put the last few beakers into the tech? It seems odd that our teammate would always get the overflow.

I'll see if I can test the GPP but I think you're suggesting that if he gets the 100 gpp great person, does our first great person cost 100 gpp or 200 gpp.

I observed this:

Both teching Fishing(1), collective overflow should be 2 beakers. Hit <enter>.

If I now tech Mining and he techs Mysticism, he will have the 2-beaker overflow put into Mysticism.

Apparently the program uses my beakers first (which makes sense) on Fishing.

 

[LowtherCastle]

How about GP points?

Interesting question. Raises the serious question of war weariness. When we were teamed with the barbs war weariness became an extremely problematic issue.

Probably not a factor in this game if we are actually isolated from other continents because our minor player would only incur war weariness when attacking outside of his cultural borders, and there will be no barbarians in this game.

 

[Mitchum]

How about GP points?

I just tested Great People Points (assuming that's what you meant). Every time one of us got a Great Person (GP), the teammates GP would go up by 50 GPP.

Example, I got the 100 GPP PG. My next GP costs 200 GPP (as expected) and his first GP now costs 150 GPP (his went up 50 GPP even though he hasn't had one yet). Then, he got his 150 GPP GP and my next GP will cost 250 GPP (+50 GPP even though I didn't do anything) and his next GP costs 250 GPP. I get the next 2 GPs at 250 GPP and 350 GPP and his second GP went up from 250 GPP to 300 GPP to 350 GPP even though he didn't pop a GP during this time.

My three GPs cost 100 GPP, 250 GPP and 350 GPP and my 4th one will cost 450 GPP.
His GP cost 150 GPP and his 2nd one will cost 350 GPP.

If you rattle off several GPs in a row, the incremental cost will be 100 GPP each. If you swap popping GPs with your teammate, each one will cost incrementally 150 GPP more than the previous one. If your teammate pops a bunch of consecutive GPs, your next GP will continue to go up 50 GPP every time.

This could make GP planning a challenge because your teammate can mess you up a bit. The AI seems to enjoy going for early GPs...

(I wonder how many mistakes you all can find in the above in my use of GP vs. GPP, wrong numbers, bad math, etc.).

 

[LowtherCastle]

I just tested Great People Points (assuming that's what you meant). Every time one of us got a Great Person (GP), the teammates GP would go up by 50 GPP.

Example, I got the 100 GPP PG. My next GP costs 200 GPP (as expected) and his first GP now costs 150 GPP (his went up 50 GPP even though he hasn't had one yet). Then, he got his 150 GPP GP and my next GP will cost 250 GPP (+50 GPP even though I didn't do anything) and his next GP costs 250 GPP. I get the next 2 GPs at 250 GPP and 350 GPP and his second GP went up from 250 GPP to 300 GPP to 350 GPP even though he didn't pop a GP during this time.

My three GPs cost 100 GPP, 250 GPP and 350 GPP and my 4th one will cost 450 GPP.
His GP cost 150 GPP and his 2nd one will cost 350 GPP.

If you rattle off several GPs in a row, the incremental cost will be 100 GPP each. If you swap popping GPs with your teammate, each one will cost incrementally 150 GPP more than the previous one. If your teammate pops a bunch of consecutive GPs, your next GP will continue to go up 50 GPP every time.

This could make GP planning a challenge because your teammate can mess you up a bit. The AI seems to enjoy going for early GPs...

(I wonder how many mistakes you all can find in the above in my use of GP vs. GPP, wrong numbers, bad math, etc.).

Wow. Excellent work, Mitch and MG. I never would’ve thought of checking that out.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I just tested Great People Points (assuming that's what you meant). Every time one of us got a Great Person (GP), the teammates GP would go up by 50 GPP.

Example, I got the 100 GPP PG. My next GP costs 200 GPP (as expected) and his first GP now costs 150 GPP (his went up 50 GPP even though he hasn't had one yet). Then, he got his 150 GPP GP and my next GP will cost 250 GPP (+50 GPP even though I didn't do anything) and his next GP costs 250 GPP. I get the next 2 GPs at 250 GPP and 350 GPP and his second GP went up from 250 GPP to 300 GPP to 350 GPP even though he didn't pop a GP during this time.

My three GPs cost 100 GPP, 250 GPP and 350 GPP and my 4th one will cost 450 GPP.
His GP cost 150 GPP and his 2nd one will cost 350 GPP.

If you rattle off several GPs in a row, the incremental cost will be 100 GPP each. If you swap popping GPs with your teammate, each one will cost incrementally 150 GPP more than the previous one. If your teammate pops a bunch of consecutive GPs, your next GP will continue to go up 50 GPP every time.

This could make GP planning a challenge because your teammate can mess you up a bit. The AI seems to enjoy going for early GPs...

(I wonder how many mistakes you all can find in the above in my use of GP vs. GPP, wrong numbers, bad math, etc.).

Great General points seem to work the same way. +50%

And yes, war weariness accrues teamwide.

 

[High King J.J.]

I intrude on the discussion of civ giants. Can we use espionage against a minor civ, especially our own ally?

 

[kcd_swede]

I intrude on the discussion of civ giants. Can we use espionage against a minor civ, especially our own ally?

I do not know. I suppose if you can, then espionage culture VC could indeed be a powerful strategy.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I intrude on the discussion of civ giants. Can we use espionage against a minor civ, especially our own ally?

Nope

 

[tinnitusmaximus]

Posting this here because I'm not sure where else to ask, apologies if this isn't the right place.

I can't seem to access the GOTM page at all right now, I just get a page with this text:

"Account Suspended
This Account has been suspended.
Contact your hosting provider for more information."

Is anyone else seeing this error or did I somehow manage to get banned without ever submitting a game?
I've never played or submitted any GOTMs before but have a completed game I could submit for 290 and would like to participate in 291 as well if I can.

 

[The_J]

The owner, Thunderfall, is currently doing some site maintenance, as we had issues with the hosting. A part of the site is already back online, but other parts not yet. Everything should get back online within a couple of days, I think.