SGOTM 13 - klarius

[AlanH]

Welcome to your SGOTM 13 Team thread. Please use it for all internal team communication, turn logs and discussions. Subscribe to it to receive notifications, and do not visit the other team threads for this game until you have finished. Please also subscribe to the Maintenance Thread for this game here, where teams and staff may post non-spoiler information of general interest. I hope you enjoy the game.

The starting saves will become available on the SGOTM Progress and Results page on December 14th, at midnight, server local time.

Rik Meleet has prepared a Huge map with 29 rivals, at Demigod level. You play as Japan, you start on a small island, and the only way anyone can win - before 2050 - is to build a spaceship. Thanks, Rik, and best wishes to both of you in your future as a married couple.

Here's the start.

Map Parameters
Playable Civ - Japan
Difficulty - Demi-god
Opponents - 29
World - Huge (250 x 125), Continents, 70% water
Barbarians - Roaming

The map is handbuilt, and therefore may not have a standard configuration. Rik isn't saying anything, as he's far too busy on his honeymoon, but we can assume the map has been "adapted"

Game mods:
We shall use the default rules as defined in the SGOTM Reference Thread.

Following recent discussions about exploits for extracting large amounts of "free" gpt from the AI, so-called "Emsworth Agreements", we shall operate the following rule as proposed by Lanzelot:

In a deal which includes a resource, a millitary alliance or a trade embargo, the human player is not allowed to pay the AI more gpt to AI than the AI demands.

Detailed discussions of the reasoning surrounding this are available starting here in the Sign-up thread for this game, as well as in a number of other HoF and GOTM-related forums.

The SGOTM Mediterranean resources are included. If you have played previous C3C SGOTMs then you will be ready. Other players will need to download and unzip this small graphics mod pack. Details are provided in the SGOTM Reference Thread..

Please ensure that you have included the line: NoAIPatrol=0 in your conquests.ini text file:

A 'fix' for the Barbarians!:
As many of you know, the barbarians in C3C are 'broken'. This can be fixed by going to your \Conquest\ folder, and opening your Conquests.ini file, and adding a line noaipatrol=0 to the file. Whilst we cannot force people to do this, it will make the game a bit more interesting if you do. If you are not comfortable editing your .ini file, you can download a utility here to do it automatically.

Players running Civ3 Complete for Macintosh should contact me if they have any problems with the mod. If they are not running a patched version they will need to use FileValet to compress their saves for upload, and they may also need to use it to 'clean' downloaded saves before playing.

Please visit the following links to ensure that you are adequately prepared, skipping references to PtW or Vanilla versions of Civ3.

The GOTM Reference Thread.
The SGOTM Reference Thread.

Notes:

A. ONLY Conquests version 1.22 (C3C) is supported for this SGOTM. All teams will compete for a single award set.

B. All teams must play the sponsored variant - the laurels will be awarded for the fastest Spaceship victory. The wooden spoons will go to the team with the lowest final Jason score, having completed the game one way or another.

C. All saved game files uploaded to the server are parsed through software that extracts and archives data about your save, including reload count for each turn set.

D. Good luck, and enjoy the game

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Hello gents,

First, the roster:
Wotan
ThERat
Northern Pike
klarius
ahman
Beorn

The link to grab saves: http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm_submission_list.php

And the link to submit: http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm.php



So, do we want to move something? Fog-gaze says there's coast all around the E-NE but nothing is set for the S part.

If we are on a small island, do we want to settle 2-3 cities as can be fitted? If we're on the end of a long peninsula, will we want to relocate eventually?

I'd send the worker 1S:
- if he finds something, we can move our settler
- otherwise, we settle on place and sincewe'll grow in 7 which is 1 more turn than what it takes before it'll be done mining, we'll almost lose nothing from him and will have gained the option of an educated relocation.

Thoughts?

 

[ThERat]

It looks to me as if there is nothing but a plain grass to the south. Most likely settle in place and found th second city on the plain grass tile. We do need the Great Lighthouse in this game I'd think.

We would want the modern age slingshot for ToE, but being demigod, might be a little difficult to achieve depending on the map.

Research: min run on alpha? Trying to get a philo -> map making slingshot?

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Yeah, we'll need MM to work these water tiles and make an income for ourselves before we can start using units. I'm not sure about the slingshot though, we'll have to see how we do in gold and everything, it might be rather hard.

 

[ThERat]

Given that we do not start with alphabet, but a lot of others do, we might be out of the philo race. If the rest starts on much bigger landmasses, that is.

 

[Northern Pike]

Checking in.

We're told that this is a small island. That could mean just the seven land tiles we can see.

 

[klarius]

Checking in.
The research should be max on alpha. My calculation gives that this is doable in less than 40 turns.
But one has to put priority on commerce. Production is anyway no big use before we have alpha. The few garrison we need and a settler can be built easily.

 

[ThERat]

@klarius
I didn't do the maths, but I thought we might be able to do faster research by going on min alpha followed by max deficit research using the cash we accumulate during the 50 turns? I might be wrong though.

 

[klarius]

In my calculation we will not get less than 50 turns on writing with only 2 small cities and will anyway not be first to it.
But we can get alphabet, curraghs and contacts (hopefully) earlier. And we get a chance that alpha is still worth something, when we meet somebody.
Anyway we shouldn't have a large deficit unless we buy techs with gpt. No use to build granaries and barracks. Even temples I would build later, unless the second city needs culture expansion. Lux tax should be avoided at least to alphabet by rather using scientists. Second city stays at size 1 with 1 scientist unless it has a water resource, capital uses scientist at size 4 (which will anyway be reached only shortly before alpha).
We need garrison for capital and settler then we may build another 2 units then curraghs (prebuilds timed to alphabet). Time it with wealth turns so no shields get wasted. Don't build additional units, we need our free unit alloaction for curraghs. We cannot prebuild anything unless we can trade for masonry or BW (that's even dicey), so we need contacts.

Edit:
Following this outline with a 2 warriors - settler build, max commerce and no additional resources, I get to alpha on turn 36. We could then stay on the same configuration (still no lux and no maintenance) and get also writing in less than 50 turns. That's probably best as it may get cheaper by contacts having it, or we may buy it cheap.

 

[ThERat]

sounds like a good plan to me

Are we sending the worker south first?

 

[klarius]

I see no reason to send the worker south. What should be there to really make us move. Also the bg will not be worked most of the time early in my planning. So I want a road on the cow first.
I did a little spreadsheeting. Find 2 variations in the attachment.
There are several combinations and variations possible, but I really think alphabet has to have the highest priority and by that the second city has only a scientist unless it has a fish (assumed in the beakers calculation).

 

[Wotan]

Checking in. You have really been busy guys. I do like your thinking klarius. My money is on plan SGOTM13(2).

I bet we are on a 7 tile island with just enough room for another town. And if we agree on the plan I guess the oepning turns are more or less straight forward so as soon as the save is available and we are in agreement i will start this baby. That is if you are OK with me taking the first 20.

 

[ahman]

Checking in.

@klarius: Sounds like a good plan, one thing I'm unsure of: Alphabet in 36 turns on huge Demigod. Have you tested it? Shaving off 14 turns would very much make it worth going on max research rather than min.

PS: If it's not too much trouble, would you consider also saving the excel in HTML or comma separated values format?

 

[klarius]

Wotan, I have no problem with you starting it off. If it is how we expect, you could even play more turns (maybe to alphabet), as there will be nothing happening.
If there is more land or other new developments you could just pause.


@ahman
I haven't tested it, but calculated.
It wouldn't work with a standard development with emphasis on production and growth. But we don't need production as long as we don't get of this rock.
I attach a html version of the spreadsheet.

 

[Wotan]

I fully agree we have no real need for anything but a hasty arrival of Alphabet. The plan submitted by Klarius give us the few Warriors and the lone Settler needed, at least if the island is as small as we fear. If I discover the island extend to the South I will stop playing and post. Else I guess going for Alphabet would be a good first turn set. After Alpha we have a lot to talk about.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Agreed on the run to alpha then discuss; the 4 pop plan looks great.

Anything special in town #2 except work whatever coastal tiles available? Sounds like a simple yet effective way of using it, pre-MM.

I'm for the faster temple option, nothing to lose there really. This may sound obvious, but no 5th citizen with 4th and 5th working sea, because we'd get 4 gold and 1 of those would be eaten by lux tax anyways, and here we get a faster peak research rate (right?).

 

[Wotan]

run second town for science unless there is a need for culture expansion. Prebuild Curragh to finish when Alpha is researched.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Granted the 3rd shield will surely not be corrupt, I'd work a mined plain in #2 as soon as we have alpha, so that we get more curraghs out.

 

[ahman]

I fully agree we have no real need for anything but a hasty arrival of Alphabet. The plan submitted by Klarius give us the few Warriors and the lone Settler needed, at least if the island is as small as we fear. If I discover the island extend to the South I will stop playing and post. Else I guess going for Alphabet would be a good first turn set. After Alpha we have a lot to talk about.

Good luck Wotan!

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Save is in!