News: BOTM 43 - Starts June 15

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 43: Charlemagne (Holy Roman)

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm43civ.jpg[/img]

Game Details:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… the Galaxy-Class Federation Starship USS Ishtar (NCC-70856) was on a routine mission to explore a Class M planet when one of their sentient drones suffered a severe malfunction. As a consequence, the nascent humanoid civilization’s city named Uruk was razed by advanced automated weaponry, which the locals superstitiously called an evil demon and named it Humbaba. The devastation was complete, and the Sumerian civilization was eradicated save for 3 tribes of refugees, who were in contact with a landing party from the Ishtar. Aided by Ishtar’s crew, these three were able to escape to the countryside, dodge “Beowolves”, befuddle the “Bull of Heaven”, and escape the notice of “Enkidu”… (various autonomic droids manufacturerd by the malfunctioning drone). The Captain of the Ishtar, Dothar Kat’nedl accepted responsibility for the error, felt pity for the three tribes and so beamed them up. Then at maximum warp speed they headed for the nearest uninhabited Class M planet, where they were resettled. During the voyage, these guests were exposed to many wonderous technologies, but the Science officer assured Captain Dothar that the refugees from Uruk were not sophisticated enough to put these technologies to any practical use, so the Prime Directive would not be violated. Yet, by some oversight (not to mention a gross violation of the Prime Directive by the captain of the USS Ishtar), the world turned out to be inhabitted after all. Not only that… it is YOUR world!
In a feeble attempt to mitigate this error, Dothar tried to limit the amount of interference her three groups of passengers could cause to the natural progression of your world’s history. They were each settled in remote locations and geological barriers to their expansion were terraformed. They were seperated from their civilian workers, who were allowed one archer to defend them from animals.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch… you, Charlemagne, are the glorius leader of the Holy Roman Nomads. After generations of wandering, your people are ready to settle and make a home. During your travels, your people have encountered the rumors that your world has been visited by the Acolytes of Ishtar, who possess great wisdom of the ages. However, it is quite apparent that you may safely disregard these rumors as superstitious nonsense. But you cannot help but ponder the opportunities such beings would make possible as you lead your people on your path to glory…

**Translation into English:

Spoiler :

You will face 6 normal AI opponents (rival native tribes). 3 additional AI opponents (the Seers from Uruk) have been pre-settled in locations that geographically limit their ability to spread or grow. In addition, these three have each been granted (on a different landmass) workers and one ancient era defensive unit (to defend workers from standard barbarian activity). In addition, they have been provided with some advanced technologies, though all of the “first to tech” bonuses are still available, and they cannot build advanced units. You may engage in all types of diplomatic activity with these three "Seers" (as may your rivals!), should you meet them. They generally represent an opportunity for creative victory-accelerating strategies, rather than an obstacle to your game.*

Good luck, and have fun!

Game settings:
Civilization: Charlemagne of Holy Rome
Rivals: 6 + 3** AIs
Difficulty: Monarch
Map: Islands/High Seas
Mapsize: Standard
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No Tribal Villages, No Random Events
Victory Conditions: All enabled

*Never trust a mapmaker

Charlemagne:
Charlemagne is Protective and Imperialistic and starts with Mysticism and Hunting. The Protective trait gives free Drill 1 and City Garrison 1 on archery and gunpowder units and increases +100% production on Walls and Castles. Imperialistic gives +50% settler production, as well as +100% Great General birthing.

Unique unit: Landsknecht (replaces Pikeman)
The Landsknecht has a strength of 6 and gets +100% combat versus mounted units like the Pikeman, but also gets +100% combat strength against melee units as well.

Unique building: Rathaus (replaces Courthouse)
The Rathaus reduces city maintenance by 75%, compared to only a 50% reduction from a courthouse.

Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:
A workboat and an archer have joined your cause. The archer is on the same tile as the settler, the workboat 1 tile SE from the settler. They bring with them the additional knowledge of fishing and sailing.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Gypsy Moths have defoliated the entire starting screenshot. All forest removed from visible tiles.
To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 June 2011, 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 15 July 2011.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Warlords or Civ4 vanilla), patched to version 3.19, and with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the BUFFY mod here. Players using Windows Vista are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Warlords or Civ4 vanilla), patched to version 3.19, and with the MacBUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the MacBUFFY 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. If you should encounter a problem with the gameplay after opening the save, please contact the game admin (kcd_swede) by private message.

 

[neilmeister]

So, we have 3 benevolent AI, (I guess Mansa, Gandhi & Washington) completely surrounded by 8 ocean? tiles. The worker & units are there so that when they expand borders they can work some tiles. So, they cannot expand until Astro.

The other 6 will be Monty, Toku, Ragnar etc.

Islands with high seas? So this means we might not get off our starting island until Astro either, maybe a well placed culture bridge will do it. Seeing the tiny island in the screenie gives me hope that we can spread to at least one other island easily.

Scout to go NE then ?? I will be looking for a good reason not to settle 1E.

 

[srad]

Or scout south to see if there is seafood near the stone. 1E looks good but has no fresh water.

 

[Xcalibrator]

1S will keep the fresh water and gain us the fish, but would mean we can't settle on the island tile that's visible. If that's a 1-tile island (can we tell from the screenie?) then we would be giving up any hope of establishing a culture bridge to the south. As neil said, we'll probably need to give extra thought to cultural bridges when picking city sites (not that it'll necessarily do us any good .) Settling to the East is nice to pick up the second ivory but then we lose the stone in the capital BFC and would also prevent another city on what looks to be the eastern coast (again bad for cultural bridging). I'd probably start with the scout to the NE (and then SE to the hill for a good look?). Since this is only Monarch I'd be tempted to explore a little with the settler--maybe NW to the rice and then SW to the hill? Based on what I see, though, I'd probably settle in place.

Rathauses will be handy for this island map; is kcd going soft on us? The settler production bonus, plus the extra commerce from off-shore cities, favors aggressive REXing, I would think. High seas means a little less land to claim for conquest/domination. Any thoughts on grand strategy? Thanks for another very creative game, kcd!

 

[WelshGandalf]

1E looks good to me but only if there are some hills to the east (the scout can check) else its production potential will be awful.

GLH and Colossus priorities as normal on a watery map - a shame the starting techs aren't sending us that way. Agriculture, fishing, mining, BW, masonry, sailing will probably be 6 of our first 7 techs.

Anyone have any thoughts on going settler first? It's 15 turns for a worker but only 17 turns for a settler if my calculations are right, thanks to that forested plains hill.

 

[babybluepants]

@Xcalibrator,
You can settle 2 tiles apart on different land masses. Also, Islands is generally navigable by galley, though I admittedly haven't played it with high sea level.

The starting techs are pretty brutal for this map. Having 2 ivory helps a lot, by giving our worker something to do.

I think I would send the scout S to check for other seafood nearby. Given what we see in the screenshot, 1E seems obvious.

 

[kcd_swede]

is kcd going soft on us?

I think he's certainly trying to make sure that unlike BOTM41, if you lose by conquest in the first few turns its YOUR OWN fault.

Edit to add: Don't try to read too much into that comment. It just means I haven't added any hostile units that you need to be concerned about.

 

[beestar]

Looks like a really interesting game - looking forward to meeting the super-Sumerians.

P.S. Hooray for no events and no huts!

 

[Bebekija]

This is tricky...

SIP loses a coastal fish, which is unacceptable (Though there may an opportunity to settle another city on the plains elephant which would work the fish instantly)

Moving 1S or 1E gains the fish but at the expense of a lot of hammers:
1E loses the fresh water bonus, 2 grass hills and the stone, and gains only the plains elephant and an hypothetical hidden ressource in the fog.
1S loses one grass hill, the ivory and one plains hill, and only gains the 1-tile island, which will probably reveal a strat ressource, I bet horses.

More food means more whip, sure, but I'm always reluctant to whip too hard in my capital, I'd better have it working cottages + popping my first GS.

 

[Bebekija]

I've been doing a bit of testing on the Islands/High Sea Level settings, which I never played.

Turns out that the bigger islands are always separated by ocean, not coast.

The possibility of culture bridging depends on the setting used concerning the small islands, which kcd_swede did not disclose.
If there are no or only a few small islands, then we (and the AIs) are stuck on our landmass until Astro, and by then, there's no more land to settle, only war to wage...

The standard setting OTOH gives plenty of islands, with lots of ressources on/around them, and you can then definitely reach another landmass through culture bridges.

 

[srad]

Is anyone else interested in a Space Colony game?

So we would have something to compare in the final spoiler.

 

[Jastrow]

Have not played a real game of civ for over a year, but thinking of trying this one out... Really out of practice, but hopefully I can still survive Monarch.

Anyway, 1E looks good to me. Hopefully we can still pick up the stone and a seafood with a city something like SW of stone (Looks like coast is the right shape for this), and 1E should give sufficient production for the early game.

At size 5 (What is the happy limit for the the capiral at Monarch with no religion? I am thinking 4 + 1 for the ivory... Should check that), we can work:

Fish, Rice, 2 phants, and Fr-pl-hill, and the center square

In terms of food - Prod - Commerc, that is:

5 - 0 - 2
5 - 0 - 0
2 - 2 - 1
1 - 3 - 1
0 - 3 - 0
2 - 1 - 8

Total

15 - 9 - 12

We will only be eating 10 foods, so we still have significant wippinng capacity or we can use the extra to run scientist if we find another source of Happy.

I think this is enough production to get the empire off the ground.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Is anyone else interested in a Space Colony game?

So we would have something to compare in the final spoiler.

I guess it's too late for 2nd thoughts now so I will join in this challenge.

I think that building the space ship is the only right thing to do in this game. Not to build a colony on Alpha Centauri but to locate the USS Ishtar and get even with these super humans - eh - or maybe just sue them and the drone manufacturer for damages .

 

[Dhoomstriker]

The story reads as if kcd_swede is the self-stylized Captain of a Starship.


At least he didn't steal our Rice and give it to one of the AIs like an interfering Arch Angel might profess to do.


It also looks like we're getting back to a 15th of the month instead of a 17th of the month schedule.


A Code of Laws beeline might not be a bad idea to open up access to our "Rathouses."


At least we know that one of the 6 AIs won't be the Sumerians... since everyone knows that Sumerians lived (and, in some alternate histories, died) on another planet, with only the remnants of the survivors being labelled the "Seers."

 

[srad]

I guess it's too late for 2nd thoughts now so I will join in this challenge.

Nice! Who else?

 

[babybluepants]

Who else?

If I get around to finishing it, that is.

 

[srad]

If I get around to finishing it, that is.

Great!

 

[Conquistador 63]

Nice! Who else?

My current goal on BOTM's is getting a fast conquest...but that can wait, a fun challenge like this one is cannot be dismissed!

 

[srad]

My current goal on BOTM's is getting a fast conquest...but that can wait, a fun challenge like this one is cannot be dismissed!

That is good news!

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Is anyone else interested in a Space Colony game?

Uhhh, dude, sorry to be a spoil-sport but you kind of linked to a Spoiler Thread for an ongoing game. Fortunately, it was only a link to a single message that didn't spoil anything about the game itself, but still... could you remove that link, please?

Better would be if you could quote the text itself instead of linking to it, even better would be to quote only the text and remove the reference-back-to-the-original-message link (the little yellow arrow inside of a red box-like shape of an icon, like you can see above next to your name in my message where I quoted you).