News: GOTM 18 Pre-Game Discussion

[Shono Mercy]

I'll move my scout to SE then SW also to check for further resources down south and if nothing else of value, will settle also 1E. Researching Animal Husbandry first will also be a good idea to make use of the cattle and start searching for horses.

 

[Vynd]

I assume this pretty much means that 1E is obvious place to settle on the Adventurer Class? At least I don't see better options unless scouting the north reveals something absolutely crazy.

Well, as you can see there are different opinions about exactly where the best place to settle is, based on what we can see in the screenshot. But as you can also see, no one think s it is a good idea to settle right on the starting location.

All other things being equal, it's best to have lots of improveable land tiles in your city's workable area. Settling in place on this map means you'll be stuck with a lot of Coast and (even worse) some Ocean tiles, which will never be more than mediocre workable tiles.

 

[Adama]

Strategy (ies)? I haven't played an expansive trait leader yet.

I'm thinking it is not nearly so much of an 'early jump-start' trait [such as Financial or more particularly, Creative], but that it will come into its own as we develop our city size into the range where a +3 health bonus will matter.

That would also mean that it's a nice plus on this map, huh? Expect tropical and high water to mean more jungle tiles, where health 'matters.' We might look north toward the equator (resource arrows pointing that way) for such tiles to develop, since at least theoretically, we would have a slight advantage in that territory? - over the AI civs without expansive trait - due to the negative health bennies of jungle.

Aggressive speaks for itself, but Expansive also offers the cheap granaries - a very important infrastructure. What else? For a noob like me, maybe expansive means just that - more expansion and cities and less thought toward early warmongering.... but, with the aggressive trait, maybe the two offset and we'll see a little of both styles (i.e., I mean in the "early" era).

Also like to stake out territory to the west on the other side of the large pond (okay, so it's an ocean bay). I agree with above that we may be not too far from southern extremities to the south (i.e., no jungle tiles in our starting position to the north? yet?)

Doesn't seem like most of us think too much of the Keshik. Will anyone build another Scout, or go straight up with Warriors? I expect that I'll go Worker---> something while I pre-chop for a settler. Not as worried, are we, about chopping too much forest, since we have the +3 health? Also, might go without slavery/ pop rush since the growth cap won't be on our capital so early (extra warriors would cover happiness cap; +3 health from Expansive trait).

Just my noobish random thoughts... corrections and help appreciated.

Good luck to all,
Adama
Military leader of the last remnant of the Human Race

 

[Capt Buttkick]

I agree that on general Keshiks are awful.
On this map, they may have some merit, though. If we're going to research AH first, our starting techs + archery and HBR would enable 6-strength units very early.

 

[Thalatta]

Honestly, keshiks aren't that bad, especially since this is vanilla: they don't have the -10% city attack that's in Warlords and chariots don't get +100% against axemen. Chariots cost half what they do, but it's probably going to take more than twice as many chariots as keshiks to kill most units. It should be pretty easy to get keshiks to 10 xp against barbarians or in an aggressive strategy and then they can handle every other contemporary unit - combat II plus shock isn't unreasonable odds against spearmen and since copper/iron should be pillaged and the AI rarely makes more than 1 spearman per city, they shouldn't be a big problem.

The main problem is that it takes a LONG time to research horseback riding. Bronze working takes a fraction of the time and gives you axemen, chopping and whipping.

 

[dalamb]

Is there some explanation for why I'm not seeing the initial screenshot in message #1?

 

[MarkM]

Is there some explanation for why I'm not seeing the initial screenshot in message #1?

It was there yesterday, but you're right, now it's gone ...

 

[Thrallia]

probably because of the server move, they haven't finished re-establishing all the links to the server.

 

[ainwood]

Is there some explanation for why I'm not seeing the initial screenshot in message #1?

Server move. Its back now.

 

[vra379971]

Hmm...I don't know. I sort of like that spot to be honest. No, nevermind. I'll likely do 1 E as well.

 

[Cardano_FF]

So I started thinking about what I would improve after settling 1E of starting position:
Net +/- on food = -12
( assuming tile 2S of scout is forest/grassland )
Cow, Workboat, Lighthouse, (2)wines = +12 eventually

Seems the designers want us to cottage spam.
(3) mines and (8) cottages then - and a very strong desire for CivilService, but probably can't slingshot it on Monarch even with all the trees to chop and Gold for adventurer.

but I might run a few test games to see if it is even theoretically possible.
so . . .
AH first for cow and hopefully a horse [we can't be that lucky] then probably BW [whip/copper->axe] Pottery Writing

Build Worker / Settler<->Warrior / Boat / Granary

At least that is my starting rough plan.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

(3) mines and (8) cottages then - and a very strong desire for CivilService, but probably can't slingshot it on Monarch even with all the trees to chop and Gold for adventurer.

but I might run a few test games to see if it is even theoretically possible.

I'd be pretty surprised if anyone achieves CS slingshot on monarch without something like gold.

Should just about be doable on the adventurer save, with their bonus gold. But it'll still take some skill - arguably sufficient skill that anyone who does pull it off probably shouldn't have been playing adventurer in the first place

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Just looking at WorldBuilder files, and tried to set a tile with 2 bonus resources on it. I half expected it to crash the game when I started it (it's quite easy to do that with bad editing changes) - but it actually ignored one of the resources and only used the one I named second.

I hate to be a wet blanket - but I don't think it can actually be done.

Oh OK. Y'live and learn Thanks for taking the trouble to try it out, AgedOne.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

If you want the CS sling on monarch and there isn't much gold nearby, try getting Writing ASAP and running scientists. You won't get many settlers out (usually just one), but I've probably got 75-80 &#37; success rate with this strategy.
In this case, however, there are just so many techs you'll want before writing: Fishing, AH, Mining, BW. Makes it harder to decide which techs to start with and which will have to come later. Fishing is often a good start imhso.

 

[=FC=Gorgon]

I love reading this thread to see how the professionals think. As someone whole only plays 1 or 2 games a month at best, I really appreciate all of your thoughts.

Based on what I've read, I think I'm going to settle 1E and have my scout head S at first to see what's down there. Then probably try AgedOne's suggestion; see who's on the continent with you and use the available technology to wipe them out.

G

 

[Thalatta]

<- Not professional; just opinionated.

 

[AgedOne]

I still haven't started this game, but probably will later today.

Been toying with the idea of a Gt Prophet-fuelled CS run. You might know the drill: Build Stonehenge and Oracle as fast as you can in the same city. Research lots of appropriate techs that the GP might want to give you (avoiding Masonry, cos that spoils it). Take either MC or CoL as your freebie from Oracle, and then use the imminent GP to lightbulb CS.

Tried it a few times in dummy runs, and seems to get me there pretty fast. Not as fast as a true slingshot, but as various have pointed out, that might not be do-able at Monarch unless conditions are perfect.

What I feel, from these practice runs, is that it seems to detract from growing my empire at the right rate, unless I'm careful, so I end up having CS, but not enough cities or military, which can be scary.

There's also the possibility that there are no metals nearby, which means you went to all of that effort just to be able to run Bureaucracy - and that wasn't the main aim!

@DynamicSpirit
No bother doing that spot of WB. I was in there anyway, looking at what kind of land-masses you normally get from these starting conditions.

The one thing it taught me to be wary of was expecting to see just 2 continents. These settings can result in 3 or 4, with the high water level splitting large continents into two.

@=FC=Gorgon
Yow! I'm certainly not a professional. My results speak for themselves.
However, I am learning!

 

[BrantleyL1]

I may have missed this somewhere, but what is the purpose of this mod?

 

[Thrallia]

if you go to this link, it will explain much about the mod to you:
HOF Mod Info

 

[BrantleyL1]

if you go to this link, it will explain much about the mod to you:
HOF Mod Info

Interesting, but that really doesn't answer the question. That describes the contents of what's in the mod, but not the WHY.

I'm not so much interested in the blow-by-blow description of the mod, but "What does it do for ME?" Why do we have to load the HOF mod for GOTM games? Would I want to load it for ALL games I play?

As an extension of that thought, why do mods do in general? Do they change the way the game is played? How far can they go? For example, could you set warriors to have 1000 hit points and be basically invincible??