ROTQM12: Re-enactment Of The Queen Mother

Welcome to the latest edition of the wildly (un)successful ROTQM series.

In the beginning there was just one lonely lady (Victoria) with 8 angry suitors (Alexander, Bismark, Genghis, Julius, Monty, Mao, Napoleon & Tokugawa).

To re-introduce pholkhero into the vagaries of Civ IV, we're going to recreate this game.

Difficulty: Noble
Map: Pangaea
Mapsize: Standard
Climate: Temperate
Water level: Medium
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Epic
Victory Conditions: all enabled, but anything less than conquest is a loss!
Variant: Raging BARBS!! Always War!!

Spots are reserved for returning heroes but the more the merrier if anyone still inhabits this dusty part of the forum.

Roster:
pholkhero
ozbenno
ruff_hi
Nolition

DM SG Rules

Spoiler :

Alpha: The quality of your report outweighs the quality of your play. We'’re here to have fun, and, of course, winning is fun, but losing in style is preferable to a boring win. [see pholk's signature if you have any questions]

Bravo: Reports should be detailed, with screen shots and player commentary, explanations, musings, etc; an auto-log dump will not suffice.

Charlie: Punctuality rocks! “24/48” means post a "got it" within 24 hours of when the last save was posted, and play and post within 48 hours of that ‘got it.’ Waiting 47 hours to ask for a skip is lame. Punk out two times in a row, and you’ll be dropped from the roster. Skips and swaps are fine, but try to let us know sooner, rather than later. Looking at you here, pholk!

Delta: Major game decisions (war/peace declarations, city/district placement, Great People placement, I guess even builder improvements) should be arrived at via group consensus.
1. If the team disagrees with you, you can either argue your case better or do it their way. Do NOT just blow them off and do it your way because it's your turn. We're not all special little snowflakes, you especially.
2. If there’ is no consensus and you'’re up, do it your way and explain why. Conversely, if someone else is up, don't whine when they do it their way.
3. Similarly, overruling techs or city builds is rude [unless Greyfox comes back and plays after pholk] and should be done via consensus, barring an emergency.
4. In extraordinary situations, sometimes an opportunity presents itself that the group didn't foresee. If the consequences of it are great, players should stop, and refer the question to the group.

Echo: Be Excellent to Each Other. Being a better player does not give you the right to belittle anyone else or their play. Other people are going to disagree with you on major decisions; get used to the idea, and play nice. If not, take your ball and go home. Party On, Dude!

Foxtrot: Thread spam is good. We’'re here to play in a friendly environment. Trash talking, poking fun, gentle ribbing, virtual noogies, and generally horsing around are all encouraged, esp as many of us haven't been around in a while and haven't "seen" many of you in long time, if ever. However, don’t be jerk. Looking at you here, Rex!

Golf: Automate sparingly.
1. Use of the “Emphasis” buttons is fine, but let the group know and explain your reasoning (specialization is a major game decision). If you prevent growth in a city, let the group know and remind them to take it off.
2. Sending units on go-to routes that last beyond your set is acceptable only if they’re heading for a rally point or if you otherwise inform your teammates.

Hotel: NEVER fortify Great People. Is it so hard to push the spacebar 15 times??

India: Sign spamming is rude. Signs can be helpful reminders, but too many signs makes them easily ignored. Once a sign is no longer valid, delete it. [The only exception to this are city specialization signs.]

And if anyone cares to delve into other games in the series check out

Return of the Quantum Monkeys - Loss
Refrains of the Quatrain Mavens - Loss
Revenge on Those Queen Muthaz - Loss
Really OK Thanks For The Memories - Won
Rune Oaths Terrify Quarrying Midgets - Won
Raging Over The Quarreling Mountains - Won

 

Excellent, you're in

Was thinking that we could use BUFFY-V3 mod for this, don't need to use all the HOF stuff but is has all the BAT and BULL goodness inside.

I'll roll up a start in the next day or so and we can get rolling after that.

 

Why not even join in?

I've attached a test save from BUFFYV3 Mod, can you check Mr pholk that you can open it? Once we have Mod compatibility, I'll roll us a start.

 

Not the actual save, just a random one generated to see if people could open it.

I'll post an actual start tonight or tomorrow.

Nolition, welcome aboard!

 

This.

The probable cause of your issues Nolition is that the Assets have changed. Because GOTM and HOF games are played with the "Lock Modified Assets"option on, this means if the assets are changed from default it will not open the game (or be accepted in HOF case).

 

OK, so game setup is like this



To give us this



And I rolled 3 starts (as a bonus to getting back into the swing of these games).

The first



Second



Third



Thoughts???

 

For my 2c....

The first save looks inviting but potentially is food poor as you'd have to farm two grass tiles to be able to work the gold and stone as well as the sheep and cow. Potentially you could settle on the stone (for a +2h bonus to boot) and bring the wheat into range but it is dry wheat so still a problem and we'd lose the gold.

The second has plenty of production/chopping potential but the food sources won't be good until Calendar (for the banana) and Civil Service (for the Wheat).

The third looks nice. The stone/gold combination seems easier to work with the floodplains, with the cow you could even cottage them rather than farm (and we are financial) and work those tiles. The lake tiles aren't great though but we seem to be up against a coast which is one less front to defend.

For what its worth, the third seems best.

I'm off to now play a practise run and see how quickly I die...

 

OK looks like save 3 is the one.

I played two run throughs (one abandoned) and have a couple of thoughts.

As we have stone, Great Wall is a good option. I abandoned my first run through as the barbs were hard work and I wanted to try a run with Great Wall. It took 8 turns to build (speeded by chopping) which was OK. The Great Spy is good as well, we can use the EPs for stealing.

Also, as it is Noble, the AIs start without an archer and will use the starting scout or warrior for scouting and leave the capital undefended, allowing us to come in and destroy them in the first 10 turns (in both saves) and resettle later.

In general, we can get a pretty hefty tech advantage over the AI (leveraging our financial trait) and once I got to Knights, Trebuchets and then Curaissers the game was just a mop up exercise.

I would go Hunting -> Archery first and then Bronze Working and Masonry.