News: GOTM 63 - Starts 1 February

[jesusin]

GOTM 63: France

[img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/gotm63civ.jpg[/img]


The sun rises on the year 4000BC. Since time immemorial, the French people have lived a nomadic life... but, have other tribes done the same? What are those remnants of older civilizations we can find here and there? You'd better find out!


Game settings:

Civilization: France (Leader: Louis XIV; Traits: Creative, Industrious)
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Noble
Map: Continents
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Sea Level: Medium
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: Requires complete kills, most Goody Huts have been removed
Victory Conditions: all enabled

Louis XIV:

Louis XIV is Creative and Industrious ; starting with The Wheel and Agriculture. As you are Creative, your cities get 2 free culture per turn and you also get double speed Theatre and Colosseum. Being Industrious you get +50% wonder production and you also get double speed Forge.




Unique unit: Musketeer(replaces Musketman)

This unit has two movement points instead of one.

Starting screenshot

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




Adventurer Class bonuses:

1. Extra Resources: There are Gems in the city ruins and Deer on the Settler starting tile.

Challenger Class Equalisers:

1. AI's get off to a good start: Are you sure you want to pick the Challenger save this time? Not only AI's get some extra benefits at the start of the game, as more pre-improved tiles and one early tech; additionally you play the game at Monarch difficulty, although AI will receive Noble starting units plus an Archer and you will score as if playing on Noble. Don't use this save if you are not prepared for a hard game. You've been warned!
   

To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open on 1 February 2011. From that date, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.
Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 1 March 2011.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Civilization 4 (NOT Warlords or BTS), patched to version 1.74, and with the HOF mod version 1.74.004 installed. You can download the HOF mod here. Players using Windows Vista are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Civilization 4 (NOT Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the Mac HOF mod version 1.74.002 installed. You can download the HOF 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 the game outside those threads while it is in progress.

Please write here or send me a Private Message for any technical queries, eg. if you have trouble opening the game. Do NOT post in this thread once you have successfully opened the starting save.

 

[magicgunnar]

Is it february already? Well, maybe settling 2SE? I think warrior NW, and if he doesn't find anything, then settler W-SE to the rice, and next turn SW-W to the plainhills.

 

[neilmeister]

I'm thinking Warrior to go SE, to see a few tiles around the PH by the river.
Settler to move to the ruins, then probably the PH SW.

A non-irrigated rice does not excite me overly, so I think I will be wandering first (and later, wondering!)

 

[kcd_swede]

I think a bit of scouting is justified... this start doesn't look so interesting unless you take the Adventurer save.

I'm thinking warrior NW, and setller S-S to the hill (unless warrior find that the start position is better than it looks). From there, warrior will move based on what was revealed, and settler will likely go W-NW to the plains hill, where I might settle if the rest of the territory is as uninteresting as the presently visible tiles.

Sounds like the AI get a head-start in tech and/or tile improvements. Should not matter for victory on Noble... but it could affect the standard early-game strategies.

Perhaps a wonder-spam game for me with that industrious trait, especially if we find marble/stone early.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Oooh a Noble game, how fun, been playing too many hard games recently

Some sort of CS sling/musketman rush perhaps, with suitable wonders. Looks like our capital, wherever it may be, is going to have a lot of hills to mine for hammers.

As for starting move, a river spot with the rice in BFC would be nice which makes 2SE appealing, but definitely some scouting should be done first. I like kcd_swede's suggestion. Settling somewhere N of the rice would be nice for all the wood to chop.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

What are those remnants of older civilizations we can find here and there? You'd better find out!

Hmmm, to me that almost sounds like a hint of "settle here, settle here!"

Of course, since the original founders of said Cities were wiped out, this "wisdom" may not be the best advice to follow.


Settling 1E would give us a LOT of production... if only we had sufficient Food to work it all! You'd literally have to Farm all of the Grassland squares in order to be able to work all of those Hills. If that idea entices you (Bureaucracy can give us +50% of our Palace's Commerce and +50% of all of those Hammers), then sending the Warrior 1SW would allow us to check to see if we're moving away from a Food Resource to the south of the Rice.

In fact, you might as well then settle 2E in order to save a Grassland River square, since doing so will take you the same number of turns as settling 1E. But then, since the Settler could move 1S before going to where the Warrior is, the Warrior wouldn't need to go 1SW... but if you use the Settler to scout the square 1S of the Rice and there IS Food there, then you might not want to move eastward afterall...


Okay, so let's say that without an additional Food Resource, settling to get all of those Hills won't be all that useful of an idea. Therefore, sending the Warrior 1NE or 1SE and then settling 1W on the City Ruins location starts to sound like it could work out reasonably well.

I'm thinking warrior NW, and settler S-S to the hill

If you're going to be doing that, then depending upon what you find (say, an additional Food Resource to the south), turning around and settling on the Rice could turn out to be a reasonable option... lots of Grassland River squares, plenty of Hills, +1 Food in the City Centre, and whatever Food Resource you uncovered, should there be one. I would not suggest settling on the Rice before revealing another Food source, though.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

In the absence of more food, this is definitely an unappetizing starting location. What's happened to jesusin lately? He used to like food, I'm sure.

My inclination is warrior 1S, and if that doesn't show anything nice, settler W-SW to maximize how many tiles we can see, then take it from there. On noble level I don't mind spending a couple of turns exploring.

 

[Cactus Pete]

"Requires complete kills" Is this standard? If not, what are the implications?

 

[babybluepants]

^ AIs don't die when you take their last city, but only after you kill all units. I think...

 

[Conquistador 63]

A non-irrigated rice does not excite me overly, so I think I will be wandering first (and later, wondering!)

Granted it's non-irrigated, but at least it is pre-farmed, isn't it? A 4-food tile from the start is not too bad to build a initial worker and fast growth until a subsequent settler.

I think warrior 1S to grasshill (unfogs 6 tiles S/SE?), depending on what we see, then settle in place turn 0, or scout to plains hill W-SW and decide later.

Might try a culture victory this time.

 

[lymond]

^ AIs don't die when you take their last city, but only after you kill all units. I think...

Yep, that's right...never used it much myself. However, I glanced at a thread one day that discussed this option and perused over something about spies. Anyone know if spies count? That is, if you've killed every visible unit but there is an AI spy running around lord knows where.

 

[leif erikson]

In the absence of more food, this is definitely an unappetizing starting location. What's happened to jesusin lately? He used to like food, I'm sure.

He probably ate it all.

Do you suppose goody huts are hidden under the city rubble? Is that possible?

Are there spies in vanilla?
edit - the worst is a settler running around in a galley somewhere that has to be tracked down.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Granted it's non-irrigated, but at least it is pre-farmed, isn't it? A 4-food tile from the start is not too bad to build a initial worker and fast growth until a subsequent settler.

Oh, good point, I hadn't noticed that. That does make a difference. I guess that's the clue to the significance of the other city ruins jesusin hints are lying around - we can expect some pre-built improvements. I'm guessing that also means we should explore to the west in case there's any other improvements within the BFC of the city ruins in the start screenshot. Being able to work dyes or sugar before we've researched calendar would be well cool! The question is: has the game been preseeded with the units that destroyed the cities as well as the ruins?

Do you suppose goody huts are hidden under the city rubble? Is that possible?

Goody huts and city ruins are both viewed by the game as 'improvements' and my understanding is a tile can only have one improvement, so I'd say it's probably not possible.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

He probably ate it all.

Are there spies in vanilla?

Yes, they come with Communism + building the Scotland Yard National Wonder + only then manually building them.

An AI that builds a Spy will likely "use" it and have it eventually die (as long as it still has sufficient Gold reserves to do so). Otherwise, you'll need to build your own Spies (I think that the limit is roughly 5 Spies empire-wide) to help in causing the enemy's Spies to be revealed... at least according to the Civilopedia your Spies can help in "discovering" enemy Spies... but we all know how the Civilopedia can be misleading sometimes.

It's probably a good idea to forget about a Conquest Victory if you can't do it before multiple AIs research Communism and have had the tech long enough to have built Scotland Yard.

edit - the worst is a settler running around in a galley somewhere that has to be tracked down.

In Civ 3, yeah, that could have been an annoying thing. Here, though, you don't even need a Settler in the Galley--it could be an Axeman or it could even just be an empty Galley... or even a Work Boat.

At least the AIs are far less likely to build exploratory Work Boats in Vanilla than they are in BtS.


Thanks to Conquistador 63's observation about the Farm, I'm with DynamicSpirit in believing that there is likely to be another pre-improved square to the west, which makes settling on the City Ruins square sound that much more attractive.

IN FACT, we might have a strong case for NOT building Worker first. Think about it!

 

[kcd_swede]

Granted it's non-irrigated, but at least it is pre-farmed, isn't it? A 4-food tile from the start is not too bad to build a initial worker and fast growth until a subsequent settler.

I think warrior 1S to grasshill (unfogs 6 tiles S/SE?), depending on what we see, then settle in place turn 0, or scout to plains hill W-SW and decide later.

Might try a culture victory this time.

Didn't notice that about the farm. It does make the city ruins more appealing to explore, based on the game intro. I think warrior NW is still the first move for me, but maybe settler W-SW might be better than S-S.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

By the way... game admins take note...
I like how the initial screenshot has the mouse hovered over the Leader's flag (located to the left of the minimap). It's a nice "free" way of adding additional info to the screenshot (the Leader's Trait info), in order to get people more fully strategizing as they stare at the opening screenshot.


What is interesting, though, is that while the Settler is selected, no blue circles appear. Perhaps the option was diabled or perhaps we really do need to go far and wide in search of a suitable settling location?

 

[magicgunnar]

Granted it's non-irrigated, but at least it is pre-farmed, isn't it?

Thanks for pointing out, I didn't notice!

The question is then: How many preimproved tiles belongs to this cityruin? Only one? Or more? Since this is noble I would guess only the rice is preimproved. So I will probably stick to my original plan.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Thanks to Conquistador 63's observation about the Farm, I'm with DynamicSpirit in believing that there is likely to be another pre-improved square to the west, which makes settling on the City Ruins square sound that much more attractive.

IN FACT, we might have a strong case for NOT building Worker first. Think about it!

OK thought about it

I think there's definitely a case for growing the city to be able to work however many pre-improved tiles there are before building a worker.

If however the rice is the only preimproved tile then it's complicated. You want the worker asap because the sooner you have the worker the faster you'll grow. Any plausible non-improved tiles (ie. discounting unlikely ones like wheat-on-flood-plain) will only give max. food+hammers=3; after the city eats 2 food, that adds just 1 hammer/turn to worker build rate. So if you let the city grow to work such a tile, it'll make very little difference to how many turns it takes to build the worker, I'm sure the small saving from the single extra hammer will be more than offset by the delay building the worker. The only things that could make a difference are (a) if you're planning to archer rush the nearest AI so just want to pump out archers at first anyway, or (b) if you can get bronze working in quickly, so maybe you'll be able to part-build, part-whip your first worker - but I haven't done any calculations to see if this would actually give you any benefit.

 

[enKage]

I think a bit of scouting is justified... this start doesn't look so interesting unless you take the Adventurer save.

I'm thinking warrior NW, and setller S-S to the hill (unless warrior find that the start position is better than it looks). From there, warrior will move based on what was revealed, and settler will likely go W-NW to the plains hill, where I might settle if the rest of the territory is as uninteresting as the presently visible tiles.

Sounds like the AI get a head-start in tech and/or tile improvements. Should not matter for victory on Noble... but it could affect the standard early-game strategies.

Perhaps a wonder-spam game for me with that industrious trait, especially if we find marble/stone early.

Warrior 1 SE, settler 2S
If nothing interesting, i would rather settle on freshwater plainhill tile, 2E. Nice production, and at least 2 river grassland to irrigate, except the rice tile

 

[Mad Professor]

The sun rises on the year 4000BC. Since time immemorial, the French people have lived a nomadic life... but, have other tribes done the same? What are those remnants of older civilizations we can find here and there? You'd better find out!

My guess is that means we'll find more things like the already farmed rice around the place. Maybe an AI or two will start next to an already mined gold tile, or we might find a mine on a grassland non-hill which might be a big hint on the next source of metal

Options: Requires complete kills,

That makes conquest a bit less tempting... I still have bad dreams about a game I played once with complete kills required where I was going for conquest and I had to find a caravel in the ocean somewhere and kill it before the game would award me conquest even though I was the only player with cities on the map. In the end I gave in to temptation and used the world builder to find the damned thing and then sent a ship to sink it!

most Goody Huts have been removed

Most??? Uh huh.

I don't like the screenshot. Not much exciting there. When I look at starts like that I usually am hoping there's a good dose of what I can't see hanging around, like iron, copper, horses, etc. The already farmed rice is a nice start though - get your first worker out a little quicker than usual.