[Warlords] News: WOTM 75 - Starts 5 January

[neilmeister]

WOTM 75: Hannibal of Carthage.

Hannibal stars in The Best Start Ever......

Can you make the most of the amazing bounty given to you and none of the AI, its even at Prince... so no excuses for not romping home with an amazing date. Even if a census taker tries to test you, just eat his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Look at the tile yields... there are some surprises

Game settings:
Playing as: Hannibal of Carthage
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Prince
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Epic
Options: No goody huts
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: Continents
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Worldsize_standard
Climate: Climate_temperate
Sea level: Sealevel_medium


Hannibal is Financial and Charismatic, and you start with Fishing and Mining.

The Financial trait gives +1 commerce on any plot that already has at least 2 commerce

The Charismatic trait gives +1 happiness/city, and -25% experience required for unit promotions

Unique unit: Numidian Cavalry (replaces Horse Archer)
The Numidian Cavalry benefits from: base strength = 5, free promotions: flanking1, and 50% combat bonus against melee units. This compares with the Horse Archer which has: base strength = 6.

Unique Building: Cothon (replaces Harbor)
The Cothon adds a trade route in addition to the normal Harbor bonuses

Starting screenshot

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




To Enter the Competition:

This competition will open at 00:01 am on 5 Jan 2017, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 20 Feb 2017.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Warlords (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Beyond the Sword), patched to version 2.13, and with the HOF mod version 2.13.003 installed. You can download the HOF mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

If you have not installed BtS, you will need to update the relevant DLL files in order to match the Locked Assets checks. These are available here.**

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Warlords (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Beyond the Sword), patched to version 2.13, and with the Mac HOF mod version 2.13.001 installed. You can download the Mac 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 your game outside those threads.

 

[nocho]

Bah, why can't the stone and the marble be the other way around.

I guess some of the food should be shared with a second city or we'll run into unhappy pretty soon even with 5 happies available. The challenging part will be how quick and how optimally we can make those tiles work for us.

Given the start surely will try space.

 

[LowtherCastle]

No pigs?

 

[neilmeister]

Stonehenge, GW & 'Mids should all be easily achievable, even with Stone so far away I felt I had given you enough commerce: Gold, Gems, Silver & a Town that you might need the extra hammers you get from Stone over Marble.

Starting on a 3H tile, with an unimproved 6F tile in the BFC, I suspect the first worker & settler should come quick.

I promise piggies are not far....

 

[LowtherCastle]

I promise piggies are not far....

A ha. Must be up by the gold.

 

[High King J.J.]

This almost makes me doubt all mapmakers are inherently and incurably .(Although the stuff about eating someones liver is pure and shows that a mapmaker can't change his spots.) OTOH everyone who plays gets the same benefits and the best I can hope for is a shield.

 

[lymond]

 

[kcd_swede]

 

[haphazard1]

Wow. I do not usually play the Warlords games, but I may have to make an exception for this one. What a start!

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Nice layout! As usual, the Plains Cow (Non-riverside) square is one of the most undesirable squares visible.

Well, there's no sense in moving our Settler to the Stone, since the Oasis at 1 NW of the Settler will eat up all of Turn 0's movement points.

Is it the presence of Desert or of Flood Plains that causes improvements to take longer to complete?

Here's one of those games where I'll actually use the City Governor, since it will be hard to keep track of which squares will be the best ones to work as squares get improved, with both Flood Plains and the Financial Trait being thrown into the mix.

The only significant downside that I can see to this start is that it's a Continents map and there isn't a Coast in sight, so we'll have to be sure to remember to settle a couple of coastal Cities at some point, despite the lushness of our immediate surroundings.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Is it the presence of Desert or of Flood Plains that causes improvements to take longer to complete?

Desert. Number of turns to build improvements is based on the terrain type. Flood-plains aren't a terrain type, they are what the game considers to be a 'feature' (alongside trees and jungle) that can be placed on a terrain.

(As an aside, that's why settling on a flood-plain always permanently destroys the flood-plain - much to my annoyance whenever an AI settles on a flood-plain next to the tile that I wanted to put a city on to take advantage of the flood-plain!)

 

[neilmeister]

Clearly you have seen this DS....I hope to see you play!

This almost makes me doubt all mapmakers are inherently and incurably .

Shhhhh, you will make the others doubt

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Clearly you have seen this DS....I hope to see you play!

He he! It would be nice to, but at my house, finding a computer that is still capable of playing Warlords is difficult.

 

[neilmeister]

I play on Windows 10.... took some effort, but I made it happen