News: GOTM 14 Pre-Game Discussion

ainwood

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GOTM 14: Napoleon



This game MUST be played in patch version 1.61. We will NOT accept any games played under any other patch versions, and you can't play it in warlords!

Further, it MUST be played using HOF mod version 1.61.010. (Different release from last month!)




Game settings:
Civilization: France (Leader: Napoleon ; Traits: Aggressive, Industrious)
Rivals: 6
Difficulty: Emperor
Map: Archepelago
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Tropical
Water level: high
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: normal.
Victory Conditions: all enabled

Napoleon:
Napoleon is Aggressive and Industrious; starting with The Wheel and Agriculture. Aggressive allows a free combat 1 promotion for melee & gunpowder units, and double production speed of barracks and drydocks. Industrious allows +50% wonder production, as well as double production speed of forges.

Unique unit: Musketeer:
The Musketeer replaces the standard Musketman. The cost and strength of the unit is the same, however it has two movement points, instead of one for the musketman.

The starting screenshot is here (click for a bigger version!)


Adventurer Class bonuses:
  1. Start with a workboat and knowledge of mining.


Challenger Class Equalisers:
  1. All other civilizations begin with an extra random technology.
  2. The crabs to the north of the settler are removed.
 
I was planning to stick to Warlords from now on, but the combination of Emperor/normal speed/standard map/high water is pretty appealing.

Two other thoughts:

1. Musketeers aren't so useful on an archipelago map.

2. That's the stiffest Challenger penalty I've seen! I like the 1-crab start, in abstract, but I think it will make the games pretty incomparable with the normal start.
 
Hey, it's the WOTM04 starting position repeated for a GOTM :mischief:

(And yes, I'm a sad git who's sitting here reading civ forums at 2am on xmas morning. I have an excuse. I have flu and can't do anything else ;) )

Merry xmas everyone!
 
Awesome !
High difficulty and reasonable map size.
Finally a game that can be finished without quitting your job and abandoning all friends (well at least not for so long :crazyeye: )

@ DynamicSpirit - you're not the only one, feel better soon !
 
I was planning to stick to Warlords from now on, but the combination of Emperor/normal speed/standard map/high water is pretty appealing.

Two other thoughts:

1. Musketeers aren't so useful on an archipelago map.
Actually, Musketeers aren't so useful '.' :mischief:

2. That's the stiffest Challenger penalty I've seen! I like the 1-crab start, in abstract, but I think it will make the games pretty incomparable with the normal start.
We're only getting a few challenger-class entries each month, so I figured that might as well make it a bit different.
 
I think I'm in for a rough time, as I'm on contender this time around...at least with those crabs we can mine that gold fairly quickly(once we research fishing and mining that is). That may be where my research goes, fishing then mining. Most likely I'll then go for BW, but it'll depend on whether I want to attempt some early wonders with that industrious trait.
 
I always like scouting, even with such a nice starting position. So warrior goes south to see if we miss something by settling in place.

Since it's 'pelago and high seas, we'll need to optimize city placement to squeeze in as many cities as possible. Doubtful I'll move if I don't spot more resources, though.

I'll definitely try for Colossus in this game. Maybe also GLight; if we can't get early contacts, at least we keep it from the AI.
 
There is another map option in Archipelago games. Is it Archipelago / Archipelago again?

There are three altogether. Apart from ordinary 'pelago, there are Snaky Continents and Tiny Islands.
Relevant question :cool:
 
Yay, an archi map! Err...emporer. No fresh water. So-so leader and not very useful UU. Hmmm.

North seems to be boreal forest type, so probably not much good land up there ? I wonder if the island extends south very far. I spy land to the east...probably another island unless we have a funky shape.

Will move the warrior SE and probably settle in place. Fishing -> mining -> BW I guess. If I can fit 9 cities I will try a quick culture win. I always get nervous and keep researching to cavalry/rifle or further...maybe this time I will get brave and stop at nationalism. Pray I don't get invaded. :p

cas
 
Interesting set-up. We start with Agriculture but there's no fresh water. We have Crabs and Gold nearby but have to research Fishing and Mining before we can use them. The map is tropical but there's frozen-looking terrain visible, so we must be very far north. Not much habitable looking land around to settle on so we may need Sailing early in order to get some city sites. All in all, this has the feel of a difficult game, at least in the early stages.
 
I'm considering to go with the challenger bonus, 'cos this will be my first emperor game.
Can we use the workboat after the first turn or must we wait until fishing is researched?
Hopefully we have access to some AI with just a galley and use the aggresive trait.
Is anybody planning on using the second WB as an explorer?
 
I'm considering to go with the challenger bonus, 'cos this will be my first emperor game.

I think you mean "adventurer bonus".

If you get a free workboat, you should be able to use it right away to improve the clams tile, but you won't be able to work the clams tile until you discover Fishing. So, for all practical purposes, it won't do you any good before then (you could explore with it, for a few turns).
 
Can we use the workboat after the first turn or must we wait until fishing is researched?
...
Is anybody planning on using the second WB as an explorer?
You need fishing first, so you can use the firsth WB to explore a bit. I will use my third WB to explore, and build a fourth if necessary.

I ran a test game and managed to build four cities... This will be an interesting experience indeed.
 
You need fishing first, so you can use the firsth WB to explore a bit. I will use my third WB to explore, and build a fourth if necessary.

I ran a test game and managed to build four cities... This will be an interesting experience indeed.

Me ditto on the workboats. The first two will turn Paris into a poprushing centre, then I'll quickly build a third to explore with. The gold will probably see only intermittant use early in my game, since working a zero-food gold tile makes poprushing rather harder.

Unless one or two AIs are very conveniently placed, early wars are likely to be quite difficult on this map, which would make for an interesting challenge since in my experience on emperor level, early wars are all but essential to get very far. The likely rapid science pace by all civs on a sea-map combined with the slowness with which galleys move, and this being on normal speed will add to the difficulties in warring. Throw in that the relative lack of land squares is likely to make happiness resources harder than normal to find and - definitely will be an interesting experience.
 
Me ditto on the workboats. The first two will turn Paris into a poprushing centre, then I'll quickly build a third to explore with. The gold will probably see only intermittant use early in my game, since working a zero-food gold tile makes poprushing rather harder.

It seems to me that there's enough food to work the gold almost all the time. Even without lighthouses, you can work both clams and the gold hill for +4 fpt, which is +40 food in 10 turns, which is quite enough to replace poprushing losses. Of course, you may not work it for the first couple of turns when recovering from a poprush, but I think it should be worked most turns.

(Of course, that's after the gold is available---just getting to Mining, and building a worker, may not happen all that fast.)
 
I think you mean "adventurer bonus".

If you get a free workboat, you should be able to use it right away to improve the clams tile, but you won't be able to work the clams tile until you discover Fishing. So, for all practical purposes, it won't do you any good before then (you could explore with it, for a few turns).

of course :)

other question: it will take 12 turns or so to research fishing+mining.
So if we start with WB, (WB) and then worker, it will take a while before the gold becomes available. Is there time to research AH before BW? We might get lucky and see some horses nearby.

On another note: I did a random testgame and also got gold+crab in the startlocation. Only wonder I managed was SH. Oracle was built around 1300BC, the others at or before 750BC. The tech pace was mind blowing.
At one point the AI just gave Education to me...
I guess Monarch-strategies won't work on Emperor and I can forget about doing the CoL slingshot for sure.
 
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