[C3C] News: COTM 169 - Arabs

templar_x

usually walks his talks
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
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In Conquest of the Month 169 you rule over Religious and Expansionist Arabia.

This game was designed by me, templar_x.

Starting Position:
cotm169.png


There is quite some food around that you cannot see yet:
wheat to the south and southeast,
wines to the east
if one of your units moves to the hill "3" of your starting position, you see all of them (remember, you´ve got that scout unit...).

Scope of the Game
map size and everything else: standard
continents
7 AI civs, the civs are pre-selected

This time I was inspired by a random world that I spawned. This one should leave you with a truly challenging start, even on Regent!
I hardly changed anything in the map and hope you enjoy such a different approach in your second game of this quarter.

Time Plan
The game is released on Oct 1, 2024.
Submissions are due by December 31, 2024.

Game release page
FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO START THE GAME WHILE WE ARE WAITING FOR THE GRP TO GET CREATED, LEIF AND MYSELF ATTACHED THE 4000BC GAME SAVE IN THIS THREAD (IT´S THE SAME FILE!).

Spoilers and discussions are free. Use your judgement!
 

Attachments

  • cotm_169_open.sav
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Hmm, sounds like the normal advantage of having a scout isn't much of an advantage this time around. Wonder if settling on the hill would be enough for a culture victory given the luxury and wheat in the city radius. Probably doable on Regent even if it's not a fully optimal location.
 
Is that "3" like in "3 o'clock", i.e. E? Or is it the 3rd Hill in the Civ III search order, i.e. N?
I mean "3" as in the NumPad... when "5" is your current position.
You could also call it "Southeast", I guess. :)
t_x
 
So all three Hills are actually in position "3" depending on what convention you apply. :cool:
That is a claim where I ask for a *picture* of each of these 3 conventions (that allegedly allow that interpretation). ;D
If you can bring those, I will make a new Paint-file for you with a beautiful arrow indicating which hill tile I mean...
:)
But sure, maybe, there are Numpads out there which I have not yet seen where "3" is somewhere completely different. And where 3, and not 6, is afraid of the 7...
t_x
 
1. The face of the clock convention: "3" equals "straight right" or "E".
2. The Civ III search order goes NE from and then in a spiral clockwise around the current location making Hill "E" the 1st, Hill "SE" the 2nd and the Hill "N" the 3rd Hill to be found, thus equating "3" with "N".
3. The keypad convention equates "3" with "SE"...
4. ...unless you rather than a calculator keypad have a telephone keypad, where "3" is actually "NE".
 
What in the presentation above makes you say that? Continents should mean enough space to run around popping huts and making contacts?

Continents doesn't necessarily mean we are on a large piece of land with lots of neighbors. We could be on an Australia type of continent all on our lonesome.
 
AlanH says in an email to me that he is travelling and will be able to upload the games only on 7 October, Monday next week.
 
As mentioned over PM I'm not part of the GotM staff but I've let them know to see if there's anything they can do in Alan's absence. Otherwise we may have wait sorry!
Can the save just be shared here before it's fixed?
 
Hello all. Please accept my sincere apologies for having failed to set up the xOTM server for this game and GOTM 196 on 1st October. Thanks to templar_x, Blake00, and leif erikson for your efforts to cover for my delay.

I have now set up the server to provide the information and files . I have set the closing date to 31 December. If players believe it should be 7th January, please let me know.

Please enjoy the game.
 
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I'm going to play it. Not sure if I want to just run a Diplo game or go for 100k since that's a good fit for the Arabs. Arabs also good for conquest on Regent with the Ansars.
 
Been a while since I've done one of these, deciding to give it a shot. I've played to 250 AD and am in the early Middle Ages now. A report of what's happened so far:

Spoiler 250 AD Spoiler :

GOTM Notes

4000 BC- Move the scout around, see a coast nearby, move worker and see some Wheats, decide to move the Settler 1SE onto a nearby hill to avoid being one tile off a coastline. Wow, 3 Wheat, 2 Wine, and some BG’s!

3950 BC- Found Mecca on the hill and start researching Alphabet

3700 BC- First Warrior built and sent exploring. From what my scout has found looks like I’m on the edge of a peninsula or an island, and there’s lots of hills and mountains nearby.

3200 BC- I pop Warrior Code from a hut, and gold from another hut, which was good because I was running low on money

3000 BC- The history of the world tells me I’m somewhat backwards, and that my AI opponents are Greece, England, France, Egypt, the Dutch, Persia, and Korea.

2800 BC- Found Medina on the coast to the south near a bunch of BG’s

2670 BC- My explorers finally see an AI border. It’s Greece. They’re up Bronze Working and Alphabet on me, have 10 gold and only 1 city. I could trade Pottery for Alphabet but I’m 2 turns from researching it anyway so I don’t.

2590 BC- Research Alphabet -> Writing

2550 BC- For some mysterious reason Greece’s Settler looked like it wanted to go settle but then ran back to Athens. Is there some barbs around here I haven’t seen yet, or something?

2510 BC- I finish a road to the Wines near Mecca, a couple turns later than I would have if I hadn’t misclicked on an attempted move

2230 BC- My exploring scout makes contact with Egypt, they’re up BW and Masonry but down Alphabet and WC and have 3 cities, I trade them Alphabet and WC for BW, Masonry, and 10 gold, then trade Greece Masonry and 28 gold for the Wheel. Nearest Horses is a bit of distance from me but I think I can get there before Greece does, especially if they keep mysteriously not building cities.

2190 BC- My scout pops a city, Damascus from a hut, way over by Egypt, and also near a barb camp. That’ll be tough to deal with. Strangely the barbs I see two tiles away from my new city don’t come to it. I double-check that I have NoAIPatrol=0, and yes, I do. Strange.

2070 BC- I finally see Greece build a city in view of one of my exploring Warriors, and also disperses a barb camp in the process.

1990 BC- Found Baghdad

1870 BC- I pop Mysticism from a hut

1830 BC- I pop HBR from a hut, then trade it and Mysticism to Egypt for IW. There’s 2 sources of Iron pretty close to me, so that’s good

1700 BC- Research Writing -> CoL

1675 BC- My Scout finds itself unable to get away from some surrounding barbarians and is killed. Unfortunate.

1625 BC- Found Najran

1475 BC- I have the continent I’m on more or less scouted out. I’m alone with Egypt and Greece, I’m far away from them and there’s a 4-tile chokepoint I can occupy with Warriors to block Greece out, at least for a while. In the meantime I’ve got a 4-turn Settler Factory set up in Mecca thanks to all the Wheat, though the lack of any fresh water anywhere near me is very disappointing, and I can't say I'm thrilled about the giant mountain cluster that's making for some inconvenient city placements and totally robbing me of some second-ring city locations.



1250 BC- Research CoL->Philo and found Kufah

1200 BC- Found Basra

1075 BC- Found Khurasan

1050 BC- Research Philo, get Republic as the free tech, start MM. I hold off on switching governments for now because my unit support costs would be too high and my towns are tiny and have no way to grow into cities without Aqueducts.

1025 BC- Trade Egypt Writing for Math and 122 gold

1000 BC- Found Anjar

975 BC- Found Fustat

850 BC- I’ve been sending out suicide Curraghs and it looks like there’s some land not too far to my Northwest, but it’s been just out of reach so far. Maybe if they become Galleys it will be easier…

825 BC- The Dutch complete the Colossus in Amsterdam. I’d just started trying to build it myself in Medina, so I’ll try shifting to a different wonder, maybe Pyramids or ToA, or maybe it just turns into a really expensive Aqueduct prebuild…

730 BC- Found Aden

710 BC- Research Map Making ->Polytheism

690 BC- Trade Egypt CoL for Construction and 36 gold

670 BC- Found Yamama

610 BC- Found Muscat

550 BC- Egypt finishes the Pyramids in Thebes. Guess my wonder city is becoming a ToA, then, or maybe an early MA wonder. I found Mansura.

530 BC- Greeks complete the Oracle in Athens

390 BC- Found Bukhara

370 BC- Found Fez

310 BC- Research Currency and reach the MA! Yay! And France completes the ToA in Paris. Not Yay! Switch my wonder build to Great Lighthouse, seems like the best option now.

290 BC- Found Shiraz, appropriately near some Wines. One of my Galleys finally made it to the landmass I saw a bit NW of my core, and found it disappointingly to be a 2-tile island. But I circle the island and there’s some Orange borders in sight!

250 BC- Make contact with Orange, it’s England, they’re up Literature and Monarchy and down Currency and Republic. There’s some teal borders just up ahead so I hold off on trading for now.

230 BC- Thebes completes MoM. I contact Persia, who’s down Currency, Republic, and Construction. England suddenly has Monotheism and Currency, so I guess there’s someone else they’re trading with. I trade them Republic for Monotheism and 11 gold.

210 BC- Elephantine completes SoZ

190 BC- Found Merw

170 BC- Research Literature

150 BC- I find Korea and the Dutch, like everyone on the other continent they have Monarchy but are otherwise at parity with me. I found Balkh

130 BC- London completes Great Lib, I found Mosul

110 BC- Found Aydab. I find France, who like me has Monarchy and no other techs up on me

90 BC- I’m 1 turn from the Lighthouse, but I could also build the Walls or HG (they all have the same shield cost). I decide the Gardens are narrowly the most useful of the 3, so I trade Republic to France for Monarchy and 5 gold and switch Medina to the Hanging Gardens.

70 BC- Complete the Gardens. With the wonder finished, my cities growing, a healthy number of them, and almost all the land settled, I decide now is as good of a time as any to finally switch into Republic.

30 BC- I become a Republic and the Dutch complete the Lighthouse. Being a Republic is definitely costing me money in the short term but hopefully I’ll be able to make it work soon.

30 AD- Found Bayt Ras

90 AD- Found Suhar

170 AD- Found Taif

230 AD- Research Feudalism

250 AD- Athens completes the Great Wall. Well that puts a damper on my plan of Ansar-rushing Greece. Why’d it have to be them, of all civs? I’m probably still going to do it anyway for some cities and a Golden Age, but now I’ll just need some more Ansars….

My empire so far:



Along with my outlying cities, both on an island and from having popped a city near Egypt:



 
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