News: BOTM 55 -- Starts June 15

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 55: Lakota versus Aliens!!!

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm55civ.jpg[/img]

Game Details:

A scouting spaceship for an aggressive race of extraterrestrials have discovered your planet. They have collected all of the useful metals (aluminum, copper, gold, iron, silver, and uranium) for later confiscation. They have left a beefed up Barbarian nation to guard them, while they return to the awaiting Mothership at Alpha Centauri.

You, Sitting Bull, have had a vision... that aliens will fall out of the sky like locusts upon your people (some time around 2050AD), destroying all works of man deemed unworthy.

You have until then to either mount a raid at Alpha Centauri, or somehow prove your worth as a people worthy of better treatment. Just win the game any way you want will do.

You will play as Sitting Bull of the Native Americans (more specifically, the Lakota tribe). You are Philosophical and Protective, and start with Fishing and Agriculture. The Philo trait gives you +100% when building universities and +100% Great People generation. The Protective trait gives you +100% production on walls and castles, and provides free Drill and City Garrison promos for archery and gunpowder units. Your unique unit is the Dog Soldier, which replaces the axeman, but has a strength of 4 instead of 5 and gains +100% combat strength against melee units compared to an axeman's +50%. The Dog Soldier is available with Broonze VVorking and does not require any resource to build. Your unique building is the Totem Pole, which replaces the Monument and provides +3XP to archery units, in addition to the normal benefits of Monuments.

The game will start in the Ancient Era against 6 AI, at Normal game speed.

Game settings:
Civilization: Sitting Bull of the Native Americans
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Monarch
Map: Arboria, Low Seas, flat/no worldwrap, significantly modified*
Mapsize: Standard
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No Random Events, No huts
Victory Conditions: All enabled


Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:
A scout with Woodsman3 promotion has joined you and taught you Hunting.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
Your warrior turned into a crazy horse and ran away, taking with him the knowledge of Fishing.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 June 2012, 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 16 July 2012.

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.

 

[shakabrade]

So basically challenger class unlocks engineering bulb to philo leader

 

[Jouzou]

Warrior SW and if he sees nothing interesting, maybe climb onto the hill with the settler? If there's no more seafood in sight, back to original spot and settle. Workboat first is probably the best option either way since worker won't have much to do before BW.

Is stonehenge worth trying? A free UB in every city would be nice and there's plenty of forest to chop. Since nobody can build spears for a while (except the Maya if they are there), horse archers could potentially be a "disc 1 nuke". Speaking of which, I sincerely hope there are no Mongols with horses around.

Since this is a forest heavy map and SB is philosophical, National Park is probably worth doing, if the game ever gets that far.

 

[happyturtle]

I've not done GOTM before - Is there a default class with neither the bonus nor the penalty?

 

[shakabrade]

Yes, there is. It is called Contender class.

 

[kcd_swede]

So basically challenger class unlocks engineering bulb to philo leader

I hadn't considered that. Thank you for pointing it out so everyone can decide for themselves if the Challenger conditions would help or hurt their own goals in the game. That's what friendly competitiopn is all about.



Consider choosing which save to play your first game decision, even before deciding where to settle. There is nothing wrong with taking Challenger save to gain an advantage, if you can. Discuss it here all you want before starting.

 

[kcd_swede]

I've not done GOTM before - Is there a default class with neither the bonus nor the penalty?

Yes, when the game is available, there will be 3 alternative saves to download. The standard game (without bonuses or penalties) is the Contender save, as Shakabrade pointed out.

 

[lymond]

So is it only the barbs that have metals or do the AIs have them to start as well.

Sounds like the Aliens neglected to take horse, although I'm sure our friendly mapmaker made sure the humans were not infested with those nasty animals.

Oracle > Feud steroid LBs might be nice here or (challenger) bub Machinery for Xbows.

 

[Jester Fool]

Giggity giggity! Man does this look fun. To contender or not to contender...that is the question.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Is stonehenge worth trying? A free UB in every city would be nice and there's plenty of forest to chop. Since nobody can build spears for a while (except the Maya if they are there), horse archers could potentially be a "disc 1 nuke". Speaking of which, I sincerely hope there are no Mongols with horses around.

Since this is a forest heavy map and SB is philosophical, National Park is probably worth doing, if the game ever gets that far.

I'd suggest warrior E. That way he can see both the unforested tiles to see if there's food on either of them. If there isn't then I'm somewhat inclined to move the settler NE to see if there's any more seafood. On an arboria map, we ought to be able to do better for food than what's visible in the start location. Only trouble is all that forest will stop the settler moving quickly, which probably makes not not worthwhile spending any time looking for it

Agree with Jouzou that the unique building does make Stonehenge look more worthwhile than normal - though it's I'd say it's still only likely to be worth building if we get early stone.

 

[wwassme]

So if I'm understanding the intro, all of the metals are concentrated somewhere and guarded by beefed up barbarians. We don't know if that is one barbarian city with metals in its cultural borders or several cities. We also don't know what beefed up barbarians are guarding them (a few extra archers? longbows? walls and a castle? Humbaba?).

Accordingly, an early priority would be finding the barbarian city or cities and assessing the optimum time to take it/them before any AI does. With a lot of forest, travel will be slow.

 

[Jouzou]

With a lot of forest, travel will be slow.

Since it looks like we want to tech hunting early anyway, might be worth it to make a scout and try to get him up to woodsman 2.

 

[happyturtle]

So if I'm understanding the intro, all of the metals are concentrated somewhere and guarded by beefed up barbarians. We don't know if that is one barbarian city with metals in its cultural borders or several cities. We also don't know what beefed up barbarians are guarding them (a few extra archers? longbows? walls and a castle? Humbaba?).

Accordingly, an early priority would be finding the barbarian city or cities and assessing the optimum time to take it/them before any AI does. With a lot of forest, travel will be slow.

They got the uranium, so clearly the beefed up barbarians have nukes.

 

[kcd_swede]

So is it only the barbs that have metals or do the AIs have them to start as well.

Sounds like the Aliens neglected to take horse, although I'm sure our friendly mapmaker made sure the humans were not infested with those nasty animals.

Oracle > Feud steroid LBs might be nice here or (challenger) bub Machinery for Xbows.

The Aliens have collected ALL the metals. AI will also not have metals unless they manage to pry them from cold dead barbarian hands.

As for horses, what would the Aliens need with horses when they are whizzing around the galaxy in spacecraft???

As for Xbows... I hope you have a plan to collect some iron before you think you'll need xbows.

 

[happyturtle]

Some AI will get a lucky mine pop and run away with the game.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Still, of all the leaders to play without metals, Sitting Bull has to be one of the best, surely? I've never actually played him before.

I'm thinking SIP, if nothing else because it will take quite a few turns to walk anywhere. Hunting, mining, BW and hunting to be starting techs in some order. Tempted by WB first, just because there doesn't seem like there's much for a worker to do until BW comes online. Chopping out stonehenge looks a decent move too. Or, just beeline Oracle feudalism but that could be risky.

Capital working crabs, deer and 2 mined hills would be a pretty nice early production city, if we wanted to go kill someone.

 

[Manco Capac]

Interesting...
you can have horses and the AI can't DoW you. I expect 100% victory from everyone.
Unless, there's Monty, but I think the AI needs two metal units for WHEEON mode, so he can't DoW either.

Engineering rush looks interesting (mainly for trebuchets), but I'll stick with the sempiternal HA.
We don't know, perhaps some AI's are out of reach and Astro is going to be needed...better save the GScientist for an early Astro...

Since it looks like we want to tech hunting early anyway, might be worth it to make a scout and try to get him up to woodsman 2.

Or perhaps just kill some animals with warriors and worker steal in the most inimaginable ways possible. Arboria!

 

[kcd_swede]

Interesting...
you can have horses and the AI can't DoW you. I expect 100% victory from everyone.

I alwayds expect 100% victory from everyone. That's because I hate when I personally acheive only a 99% victory.

Do it faster than everyone else, or gain a higher score. That... and have fun.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Interesting...
you can have horses and the AI can't DoW you. I expect 100% victory from everyone.
Unless, there's Monty, but I think the AI needs two metal units for WHEEON mode, so he can't DoW either.

Wow... I did not know this. So no-one will declare war on us? Cool!

This still leaves the souped-up barbarians, though...

 

[Mitchum]

Strange. Why does the deer resource have 2. The deer itself adds 1 so the tile should be 21. I guess that plains tile has a forest on it even though it doesn't appear to... Or am I missing something obvious?