[BTS] News: BOTM 303 - Japan, Noble level - Starts 6 Feb

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 303: Tokugawa of Japan.

Welcome to Civ 4 Game of the Month - BOTM 303. These games allow new and old GOTM fans to play Civ 4 single-player in a friendly competitive environment. For each game, everyone starts with the same map and starting save, and you play to see if you can get a better result than everyone else!

Archipelago maps have a reputation for taking ages to play. So to counter that, you are playing on a SMALL archipelago map. And with high sea level there's probably not a lot of land around that your enemies could be hanging out on. Being Tokugawa you probably have a lot of enemies, but then it's only Noble Level. You should be able to defeat them within the first 20 turns easily, right...?

You play as Tokugawa of Japan, on Noble difficulty, against 4 AIs and with this start (click the image to see a bigger version):

Start Playing!	Submit your entry!
Competition opens 6 Feb 2026	Competition closes 16 Mar 2026
Once the competition is open, download the starting save >>>here<<< and start playing	When you've finished the game and before the competition closes, upload your victory (or defeat) >>>here<<<

Game and map information:

Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Difficulty: Noble
Options: No goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled
Map: ***TODO: FILL THIS IN***
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: High
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N

Your unique Civ:

Tokugawa is Protective and Aggressive, and you start with Fishing and The Wheel.
The Protective trait gives free City Garrison I and Drill I promotion for archery and gunpowder units and double production speed of Castle and Walls
The Aggressive trait gives free Combat I promotion for melee and gunpowder units and double production speed of Barracks and Drydock
Unique unit: Samurai (replaces Maceman)
First strikes are the samurai's strength: It starts with two first strikes, and the drill I promotion which gives an additional first strike chance (and gives easy access to some other rather nice promotions). However it does specifically need iron to build: Unlike the maceman, copper won't suffice.
Unique Building: Shale Plant (replaces Coal Plant)
Unlike the coal plant, the shale plant will provide power whether or not you have coal available. It also gives +10% hammers.

New to GOTM? How to get set up for the game

To play the game, you must have Civ4 Beyond the Sword installed and patched to 3.19. You also need to have installed the HOF/BUFFY mod version BUFFY, which you can get here. You can only play on Windows. There's detailed info about getting set up and playing the competition game in this newbies guide.

Rules while playing...

Our cardinal rule is that 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. If we detect that you've broken these rules, we'll reject your competition entry.

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..

Adventurer and Challenger games:

As an alternative, for the GOTM competitions, we often (but not always) provide an easier 'adventurer' and a harder 'challenger' saves.
For this game:

• Adventurer: Adventurer save??? The game is already on Noble level! You don't need an adventurer save! So sorry, there isn't one this time.
• Challenger: You play on Monarch level (but AI still has noble level starting units)

The newbies guide has a full explanation of adventurer and challenger.

@Blake00 @The_J

 

[High King J.J.]

It's a trap! The starting location tempts us with early but building it on your capital may be contraindicated. Or maybe not. So either we make a bad decision about a national wonder or delay building the Moai until the best location is found and in the meanwhile no city benefits from it. Maybe I need since this makes little sense even to myself.

SIP is tempting but mapmakers are . On Noble there may be time to scout a little first. Warrior scouts SE (corn) and settler scouts SW and then either SW or SE.

If I were to guess the rivals might be China, Korea, America and the failed state of Russia. Or maybe the rivals are civs with naval UU's or UB's such as Portugal (Carrack), Netheril (East Indiaman, Dike), Vikings (Trading Post, Berserker), and even Carthago (Cothon).

About the Samurai, they have made Tarantino's Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair which combines the 2 Kill Bill movies. What? How is this ? I give up and go to in my .

 

[Frederiksberg]

Thanks for the small map! Would be even better if a small map at a high difficulty level were to show up in the future.

Looks like it will be a pretty standard opening for my part: SIP, worker first, Agriculture/Pottery.

 

[LowtherCastle]

It's a trap! The starting location tempts us with early but building it on your capital may be contraindicated. Or maybe not. So either we make a bad decision about a national wonder or delay building the Moai until the best location is found and in the meanwhile no city benefits from it. Maybe I need since this makes little sense even to myself.

SIP is tempting but mapmakers are . On Noble there may be time to scout a little first. Warrior scouts SE (corn) and settler scouts SW and then either SW or SE.

If I were to guess the rivals might be China, Korea, America and the failed state of Russia. Or maybe the rivals are civs with naval UU's or UB's such as Portugal (Carrack), Netheril (East Indiaman, Dike), Vikings (Trading Post, Berserker), and even Carthago (Cothon).

About the Samurai, they have made Tarantino's Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair which combines the 2 Kill Bill movies. What? How is this ? I give up and go to in my .

I hadn’t thought of the Moai statues in our capital. Maybe an interesting play would be to be line agriculture, pottery, then monotheism before settling city 2. Build oracle and moai in the capital for the shrine prophet and spam missionaries while rexing.

More obvious would be to simply build Stonehenge and save the prophet for a golden age, but the instant 25 hammer OR bonus speeding up whips on island granaries and lighthouses is an interesting twist to Rex.

Of course, that’s assuming this archipelago map is archipelago/archipelago rather than archipelago/snaky continents.

 

[High King J.J.]

the instant 25 hammer OR bonus speeding up whips on island granaries and lighthouses

From my I notice I no longer understand the living. What does OR stand for? What instant 25 hammers?
Sure the acronyms are legion, I just SIP sitting on my BFC, contemplating the RNG.
By the way, I believe Samurai is stronger than Maceman because katana is superior weapon compared to mace spray. Right?
Now I go back to in my to wait for the starting save.

 

[LowtherCastle]

From my I notice I no longer understand the living. What does OR stand for? What instant 25 hammers?
Sure the acronyms are legion, I just SIP sitting on my BFC, contemplating the RNG.
By the way, I believe Samurai is stronger than Maceman because katana is superior weapon compared to mace spray. Right?
Now I go back to in my to wait for the starting save.

Organized Religion (religious civic)

The 25h bonus (for buildings only) I mentioned is the one we get in any city with our religion when we’re in that religion and running OR. Monotheism unlocks OR.

So my idea was to be first to Mono, getting Judaism in our capital (our only city). OR also enables religious cities to build missionaries so put a settler and a missionary on a galley and the island city starts with our religion and the hammer bonus.

So for a granary or lighthouse, this means we could whip for 1 population with 23h in the build instead of 30h.

1pop whip = 30h + 25% =37h

 

[High King J.J.]

Organized Religion (religious civic)

The 25h bonus (for buildings only) I mentioned is the one we get in any city with our religion when we’re in that religion and running OR. Monotheism unlocks OR.

So my idea was to be first to Mono, getting Judaism in our capital (our only city). OR also enables religious cities to build missionaries so put a settler and a missionary on a galley and the island city starts with our religion and the hammer bonus.

So for a granary or lighthouse, this means we could whip for 1 population with 23h in the build instead of 30h.

1pop whip = 30h + 25% =37h

Or OR could be short for . But you don't get (oranges) from (mono).
But it's 25% bonus, not 25 what me... and now I see you meant instant +25% hammer bonus. It was the missing percent that hammered my understanding.
Thanks. I crawl back to my . Whatever undead I may be I'm obviously not a lich with high intelligence.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Oh.