News: GOTM 22 Pre-Game Discussion

[ngraner42]

I started the practice game before going to work and it appears that we still have a grace period before the AI will enter your territory. I did not play very far, but based on the Stalin game, it seems like this game could make the Deity game look easy. That is, if we have Iron and Copper or Horses, otherwise it could really be bad.

 

[Markus5]

I'm really tempted to skip this GOTM. I play this game for fun, and this really doesn't look like fun. Still, I expect I'll give it a go. But, I won't have fun.

 

[Munro]

Obviously isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, this should be a total blast. And hard. I was amazed at how well the 6 AI kept up in WOTM11 (Stalin, always war), and that was at Warlord difficultly. Isn't that supposed to be the easiest setting?

This may be a shorter game than people are expecting after all...

Still, it's hard for the AI to take part in an AW tech love fest when their civilization has been destroyed.... !!!

Almost tempting to go for a cultural victory or something just to try for a medal. (Like the recent Chuchill WOTM when there wasn't a single conquest victory posted....)

 

[Jove]

No one is going to make you have fun, Markus5
I might attempt a peaceful VC just for laughs and to see if it can be done on these settings. By me that is.

 

[Htadus]

Ouch.........ouch.............man that was painful. Tried JungleIII's test game and back to school for me. My typical no Archery game ended rather quick. So if there are no strategic resources near by, this game is going to be quick.

 

[Mad Professor]

Ouch.........ouch.............man that was painful. Tried JungleIII's test game and back to school for me. My typical no Archery game ended rather quick. So if there are no strategic resources near by, this game is going to be quick.

I haven't had time to try the test game yet, but in a pangea all war game where the AI's start with archers, archery is going to have to be in there somewhere early, while you're getting the pretorians out. I'd like to just start BW, IW, get the iron on, and go berserk with it, but I don't think anyone will survive so long on just warriors... The prets will have to be delayed a few extra turns in a concession to surviving long enough to use them.

 

[azzaman333]

Not a hope in hell, not even with praets. Another GOTM which is way too time consuming for me to be able to play.

 

[jesusin]

Always War. I have never tried that. Sound like a very fun game.

Let's see, if at war no tech trading. Not even extorting techs for peace. So I'll have to research every tech myself... I was planning for my first spaceship, maybe not a good idea for this game...

 

[Mad Professor]

Always War. I have never tried that. Sound like a very fun game.

Let's see, if at war no tech trading. Not even extorting techs for peace. So I'll have to research every tech myself... I was planning for my first spaceship, maybe not a good idea for this game...

Ooohhhh....... I don't know. Maybe you'll get an award for a 2049 spaceship victory...

 

[AlanH]

As much as I want to compete with the GOTMs, I can't because when I submitted my GOTM 21 save, it still states that I have a 1.61 version of Civ4 although I already updated it as shown on the following image...

Your GOTM 21 submission was accepted. The could be no problem, as the HoF Mod version was correct, and it would not have run with version 1.61.

The only issue was with my submission script, which had not then been updated to recognise the 1.74 game software, as it was relying on the save version to define it, and that didn't change. I fixed that around the time of your GOTM 21 submission.

BTW. I deleted your date and victory details, since they are spoilers while GOTM 21 is still open.

 

[volfan37132]

Yeah I'm going to get my tail kicked on this one. My only faint
hope is if there are the nice early military resources nearby AND
there are some nice choke points nearby. Rocky climate is prone to
those even if they are low on food. Scouting may be high
priority. Even so I think I'll get run over in time anyway.

 

[Mad Professor]

It occurs to me that the longer the game goes, the worse it gets, because the other civs will get to like each other because of the mutual military struggle and trade techs while the human player has to study every tech themselves. That means the longer the game goes and the more chummy the AI's get, the worse off the human player. Sounds like it will have to be pedal to the metal from the first turn just to wipe out enough civs quick enough to win before they overwhelm you...

 

[Vynd]

Monarch = AI start with roaming archer... Well, Stalin challenger WOTM on Noble was a toughie, so this one is gonna be killa. I hardly see any peaceful victory, unless it's just an unfinished aggro one.

Yeah, on a Pangea map with these settings I think the only "peaceful" victories will be by players who deliberately stop just short of Conquest and then build their space ships or whatever.

That is, if there are any peaceful victories. My guess is if anyone does get to the point where they can win militarily they're going to take it. I could be wrong, but to me this looks like a game where scoring any sort of victory is a prize, forget about trying to milk things for a medal. Even surviving is going to be a challenge for most of us.

 

[Vynd]

Yeah I'm going to get my tail kicked on this one. My only faint
hope is if there are the nice early military resources nearby AND
there are some nice choke points nearby. Rocky climate is prone to
those even if they are low on food. Scouting may be high
priority. Even so I think I'll get run over in time anyway.

I agree that choke points will be our friends. Finding the coast would be nice, for example. But scouting is a mixed blessing at best. The more you scout the more likely you are to encounter the various AIs, and as soon as you do they'll declare war on you. Most of them are definitely going to be encountered early, there's no helping that. But if we're lucky, at least one or two AIs won't find us during the early scouting period and then will be cut off by the cultural borders of other civs. After that it'll take at least until Writing and Open Borders before they find us and start sending units our way.

People have a good point that simply surviving long enough to build Praetorians will be difficult. For instance, getting a second city not only up and running, but linked to the capital, is going to be much harder than usual. I find myself thinking that we simply must have Iron at the starting location to have a chance. Which would imply that ainwood has made sure it is present, which in turn means that moving the Settler at all could be a mistake.

 

[Mad Professor]

I've played JungleIII's practice game to 740AD and I sincerely hope the position in the real game is kinder. In that practice game, Rome is placed right in the middle of the pangea continent and they come at you in hordes from everywhere. I did well early, just about taking out elizabeth with early preats, but when she had one city left, the hordes started to come from all points of the compass. It was Cyrus' immortal/sword combos that took most of England off me again and by 740AD when I 've stopped playing, I'm down to only Rome, and the hordes are breaking against the walls of Rome like water on rock as preats with 50+ experience carve up all comers. It's only a matter of time though - if I played further eventually AI tech at least if nothing else would mean units would come that no preatorian could defeat no matter how promoted.

Archery is needed early in order to survive long enough to use the preats. Maintaining any kind of economy after the hordes start is basically impossible. I did well early, but later on I gave up even using the workers.

The position in relation to other civs on the continent will be critical. As someone has said, choke points and sea will will be useful.

WW is not an issue. It just doesn't happen in all war games apparently.

Even with that though I confess winning this kind of game is looking very hard indeed. It's one thing to survive, but at Monarch with no tech trading ever, (while the AI's trade with each other and are great buddies) no friends ever, and a big enough land mass to make it real difficult to cover in just a few centuries, I'm at loss as to how to win it. If anyone does so, I hope they post a detailed commentary on it in the spoiler thread. I'll play this one to see how I go, but I don't expect to win it - survive a long time maybe, but win? I doubt it!

 

[Markus5]

No one is going to make you have fun, Markus5

I might be beyond hope.

 

[Markus5]

I'll feel a little better if someone shares some really good ideas for tackling this monster.

Me? I'll research Ag then AH. I'll pick up Hunting later if Elephants show up. Then research BW and IW, then Wheel. Cats (and elephants) would be next. I'll build warrior, warrior, worker, warrior, worker, warrior, settler, then try to get one more settler out, but building war units mostly. I will only scout enough to see the area nearby. But, I won't be having fun.

A few of the test maps I've generated have had interesting features and it might be possible to have some choke points. Any idea what the coastline option is set to?

 

[Balbes]

Praetorians so completely dominate the era, you'll want Iron Working, a settler if no Iron in the capital, and nothing else.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Monarch = AI start with roaming archer... Well, Stalin challenger WOTM on Noble was a toughie, so this one is gonna be killa. I hardly see any peaceful victory, unless it's just an unfinished aggro one.

Going for the ambulance award for a change of pace?

 

[Lehm]

I looking to settle 1SW on the plains hill to get the pig hill into the fat cross as we have no too much food when settling in place. But I really think that the iron will show up on that plain hill. And the fact that there is no blue circel on that spot makes me hazitating.