News: BOTM 94, The Great Rift, started Sept 15

[Deckhand]

BOTM94: The Great Rift

"Africa's Great Rift Valley is geologically active: gradually the continent is being split in two." In this month's game, the split has occurred, isolating a piece of the oasis map. Freddy is Mediocre because the other leaders are Deity level. Is an isolated deity start an advantage or disadvantage? You start with contact with some of the civs - this way you can get trading with worst enemy malus right away.

Game settings:
Playing as: Freddy the Mediocre of Germany
Germany - Unique Unit: Panzer (replaces Tank), Unique Building: Assembly Plant (replaces Factory)
Rivals: 7 AIs
Difficulty: Deity
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No barbarians, permanent alliances, no goody huts, no events

Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Great Rift (edited Oasis)
World Wrap: Flat
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Temperate


Freddy the Mediocre is Philosophical and Organized, and you start with Hunting and Mining.

The Philosophical trait gives +100% great people birth rate and double production speed of University

The Organized trait gives Civic upkeep reduced 50 percent. Double production speed of Lighthouse, Factory, and Courthouse.

Unique unit: Panzer

Unique Building: Assembly Plant

Starting screenshot

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



Note that in this game, any espionage-culture victories will be counted as cultural victories.

Adventurer Class bonuses:
You play at Emperor Level.
Not eligible for Medals or fastest finish rewards.

Challenger Class Equalizers:
You don't start with bonus worker.

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 15 Sep 2015, 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 17 October 2015.

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 3.19.003 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.

 

[Deckhand]

You start in contact with some civs. I did this so you could trade techs while isolated. But I tested this by giving Fred some extra techs, including Alphabet; however he wasn't able to trade them. I don't have time to investigate, sorry.

No worker stealing (not that it is a good idea at deity), so you start with one.
Remember, you can't see corn in desert unless resources are displayed.

Frederick of Germany is another leader that hasn't starred in BOTM previously.

====
Profuse apologies. I created this game a week ago, but delayed posting the announcement - much longer than I had planned.
I have asked Alan to extend the due date two days to Oct17.

 

[High King J.J.]

You start with contact with some of the civs - this way you can get trading with worst enemy malus right away.

At first I thought it's a typo, that you meant Mali but upon consulting a dictionary I find:

malus
noun

the return of performance-related compensation upon the discovery of deficient performance

All I need it to figure out is what that means.

Nice idea Deckhand.
If I survive at all, those panzers are going to be useful. Ambulance here I come!

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Nice theme, good Leader choice, and I like how we get to know some of the AIs from the start.

Just to clarify, when you say "No worker stealing," we are still allowed to steal Workers, it's just that it may take a while before we can do so since we're isolated from the AIs, correct?

With so many Gold Resources, it seems as though it will be important to quickly get up to 3 Cities to be able to work them all. The Marble should not be used for The Oracle, as getting another Settler out is too important. However, Marble will be great for some of the later Wonders.

A Small-sized map is also a welcome change, to help with making the game go more quickly and leaving less room for the AIs to peacefully take over.


EDIT: Malus in this case refers to incurring a Traded With My Worst Enemy penalty, or more specifically, negative Diplo Attitude points when making a trade that favours an AI who is the most disliked player by another AI.

 

[Folket]

I wonder how isolated we are. SIP seems like it is really bad on food. I will probably go SSW and settle to get wet wheat.

Btw, I really hoped for a spiritual leader.

 

[Deckhand]

Yes. You are free to steal as many workers as you can. Just don't expect to do so early.
Small Sized Oasis is still pretty big.
I agree that Spiritual leaders are great. Sorry. I've been selecting leaders that haven't been used in the applicable xOTM.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

That looks a nice generous starting location. I'm guessing we have the mapmaker to thank for all those golds!

Not sure if I'll play this one because deity is very hard - but the free worker and all that gold could tempt me to have a go I wonder if it's worth settling 1S on the plains-hill gold. Yes, I know you lose the commerce from that gold but there's plenty more to go round, and it means you'll get the nice 2H for the city tile to produce - I dunno, maybe a warrior, seeing as we have a worker.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Yeah, 1S is interesting. You get the extra hammer PLUS an extra commerce from the gold, while maintaining the number of minable golds. Settling in place, on the floodplain, does NOT give you an extra food if I recall correctly. You'd also have two fewer floodplains in the BFC (6 vs 8) with 1S, which saves you 1 health point.

[Edit: DH points out below that settling on a floodplain cancels it, so SIP would only have 7.]

 

[Dhoomstriker]

What are the "bad" numbers for total Flood Plains again? Is it 3, 5, and 8, such that as soon as you reach one of those numbers, there's +1 Unhealthiness?

Desert Corn aren't great, but at least 2 of them are wet.

SW + S + S for me. Forests, a Grassland Hills square, 3 Gold, Wheat, don't waste a Flood Plains square... settling there does make the use of the Oasis 1SE of the Settler a bit awkward, but otherwise it seems like quite a balanced capital. A bit less Food than SW + S, but overall, it's nice.

A bigger question might be... is it better to Farm or Cottage a Flood Plains square? Cottages are nice, but if Farming a Flood Plains square allows you to work an additional Gold Mine for many more turns, then the Farm probably wins out, right? Plan it out based on how quickly you plan to grow, how much you plan to whip, etc.

 

[Folket]

Bad floodplains are 3, 4 and 8 if I remember correctly.

Even if desert corn is wet it is worse then floodplains.

 

[Deckhand]

Bad floodplains in BFC are 3, 5 and 8.
3 * .4 = 1.2
5 * .4 = 2.0
8 * .4 = 3.2

2, 4, 7 = .8, 1.6, 2.8


Settling on a flood plain removes it.

 

[neilmeister]

Really rusty.... still getting the kinks out....

The wet wheat is the best tile we see, excluding gold of course, as it doesn't really matter where we settler we will have some. So its SW & S for me.