SGOTM 14 - Elite

[AlanH]

SGOTM 14 - Humanitarian Portuguese Domination
Welcome to your SGOTM 14 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 October 18th, at midnight, server local time.

Henry of Portugal intends to dominate the world, but he also wants to conserve as much as possible of its cultural diversity. This is a Demigod game, on a standard archipelago map. Thanks go to Ivan Larkin and CommandoBob for assembling the specification for this game. You can see the discussions leading to it in this thread.

The winning laurels will be awarded to the team that reaches a fast Domination victory with the highest "humanitarian" score. Each civilization that is still alive in your victory save will add ten points to your score. Each turn that you take to reach victory will deduct one point from your score.

The game will be played to GOTM standards. No one plays the save except the current team player. No replays except in the event of a crash. Set autosaves for every turn so that you only replay the current turn if you suffer a crash.

Here's the start. All the food, shields and luxuries you could wish for . Click the picture for a bigger image.

​

Map Parameters
Playable Civ - Portugal
Difficulty - Demi-god
Opponents - 24
World - Standard (100 x 50), Archipelago, 60% water
Barbarians - Roaming

The map may have been tweaked

Game mods:
We shall use the default rules as defined in the SGOTM Reference Thread. Note that Differential Naval Movement remains a feature of the SGOTM scenarios.

All the AI civs have been provided with additional defence in the form of a Pikeman to reduce the chances of too many AI-on-AI deaths.

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 SGOTM 13 sign-up thread, as well as in a number of other HoF and GOTM-related forums.

The SGOTM Mediterranean resources are included. If you have played previous SGOTMs then you will be ready. Other players will need to download and unzip a small graphics mod pack linked in the 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:

• ONLY Conquests version 1.22 (C3C) is supported for this SGOTM.
  
  
• All teams will compete for a single award set:
  The Crimson Laurels will be awarded for the Domination victory with the most civs still alive, and in the least turns. Each live civ adds ten points. Each turn taken to achieve victory deducts one point. If two teams score the same then the most humanitarian team wins - the one with more civs alive. If this figure is also equal then the Jason scores will be the tie breaker.
  
  
  
  
  The Wooden Spoons are for the lowest Jason-scoring finish, win or lose, but you have to try to win!
  
  
  
  
  
• 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.
  
• Have fun, and be nice to each other

 

[CommandoBob]

​

The End

The door opened into a large room of tables and booths, all empty. Only the lights by the door were lit, and he had just turned them on. The floor was clean and the arrangements on the tables were neat and orderly. The ceiling fans were on low and were the only thing moving. Even the electronics were off and unplugged; no tiny little red lights to highlight their location in the darkness.

The door opener stood a minute framed in the doorway by the light outside. The old door he closed quietly, as was his custom, though the click of the door latch seemed very loud. He walked slowy across the floor, his footsteps on the wooden floor serving only to deepen the silence. As he made his way to the far wall a song sprang from his lips, remembered from his youth, and he sang it softly as he walked.


Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day...


His voice trailed off and he stopped singing and stood in the middle of the room.

'No, that's not right. We all knew that someday this day would come. But that isn't the right song, not for now. This is not the time of regrets.'

He shrugged off his back pack and continued to walk and talk to himself.

'Definetly not a time of regrets. The end has come and the memories are good. Need a song that communicates that, not the other...'

He stopped in front of a series of mounted plaques. He took the first one and studied it, angling it to read it in the dim light. Between the braids of the golden laurels were the words 'Durkz Classic'.



He pulled a set of packages out of the backpack and set them onto the nearby bar. Each were numbered; from 8 to 13. He opened the one numbered 8 and took the plaque and set it inside the case, closed it softly and then set the case aside.

Now he had the right song.


So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight


The next plaque read




So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu

WarDance, zyxy and many others.

Slowly, yet all too quickly, the plaques for 10, 11, 12 and 13 were placed into their cases and then all were placed into the backpack.


So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night


As he shouldered the backpack and got ready to leave, the ****oo clock up in the corner began to signal the new hour.

'Yes,' he said, speaking to the clock when it was done, 'I remember how it starts.' And he sang rather loudly as he walked to the door.


There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple too
And up in the nursery an absurd little bird
Is popping out to say "****oo".

****oo, ****oo

Regretfully they tell us
But firmly they compel us
To say goodbye...


He opened the door, locked it, turned out the lights, stepped outside and closed the door behind him, singing softly


So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

 

[CommandoBob]

​

Outside the building he gazed up into the sky and sighed. Then he shook his head, took a deep breath and turned to face the building again. He raised his arms slowly, chanting softly, 'Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me; twice on the pipes if the answer is no-oh.' When his arms were fully raised above his head he cried in a loud voice, 'Walla, Walla, Washington!' In the darkness of the starlit skies he stomped his left foot twice and then clapped, and then stomped twice again and clapped once more.

'We are,

we are,

Elite!'
​

(stomp, stomp, clap!; stomp, stomp, clap!)

'We are,

we are,

Elite!'
​

And then opened the door to the newly formed Elite Hangout and went in to get ready to meet the team.

 

[Kulko]

Eagerly he climbed into the face of the rising sun. He had walked for hours to come to this place and now anciety creeped slowly into his mind.

Behind that hill lay the former camp Veteran. When he had been called back to his Clan all this months ago he had left at night, always looking back to that tiny dugout where the light of a storm latern marked the captain deep in discussion with his companions over the plan for the first battle of this new campaign. Spain had shelled their positions for weeks and now the time for retribution would come around.

But not for him. Yesterday his wife ad send a message calling for his return as his firstborn daughter was due month before the date and the midwife was expecting her any minute now. Unable to face the captain with the news of leaving them alone in this hour of need he had left a note and sped home.

But now the circle had come around and the captain had requested his return for the new war and he decided to follow the call of duty and deal with the guilt like the battle hardened ELITE soldier he was supposed to be.

But all this was soon replaced by awe when he finally reached the crest and let his eye sweep over the next valley.

Gone where the outer trenches where he layed so many hours fighting of Aztecs warriors, Japanese Samurai and French Musketeers. Gone was the small plattform on the lonely tree where he had frozen night after night on the watch while his mates slept in their cots. Gone was the small hole oin the earth where these cots had been, crammed into the corners of a room filled with tactical displays, battle simulators and a huge desk for planning all there campaigns.

They had always dreamed of a real camp with palisades and lookout towers a mess hall, and a helicopter landing pod (Oh how he hated walking out 30 the 500 m to the next plain piece of earth when HQ had send new eqipment.) But time had never been there and so the Veterans had continued to live in their makeshift home with all the little inconviniences.

But obviously times had chanegd. He thought he even saw a small Anti Aircraft battery dug in behind the central watch tower. But his eyes always shifted back to the central structure. Their proud Regimental Colours flew on to of that building and while yet subdued the people moving around brimmed with newfound activity.

Sweeping his eyes one last time over all the advance positions, artillery dugouts and radar towers he felt a new pride. This was definetly the camp worthy of one of SID's ELITE corps.

But it also dawned on him finally the time if excuses was over. They had fought well in the past. They had beaten them all. Just not all at once. But this time only final victory would count. This flag had a silver lining and he was proud of having been part of that valiant effort, but it was definitely missing a golden laurel.

This was the time and they would make it their time.

Entering the open gates and facing the door where his teammates would be waiting. Thinking one last time about the uneasy prospect of having to face the captain with his shame he forced himself forward to carry his share of the load, to fight for his part of the final fame.

 

[Renata]

Bucephalus will be joining you; he's said he knows some of you from previous SGs. Best of luck to you all.

 

[socralynnek]

He was the first one in the camp. He didn't even know at that time if others were on their way or whether he'd have to pack his bag and go into the unknown, trying to find someone who needs a Veteran.

A veteran that started out as a newbie. As the leader of the newbies even as he was the only one who knew how that game feels like.

He looked back with proud, even though the shelve of trophies is still empty. At least there is othing that only catches dust. He knows, he is not at the height of his capabilities anymore, but furthermore he knows that this is not the only thing that counts. It is about the team. The whole can be much more than the sum of its parts.

As he heard the stomping and clapping and singing of someone to arrive, he started making some coffee. With those magic spoons they came home with after the last journey, the coffee is even more powerful. But now the time of remembering the past has gone. New adventures lie ahead! The team is still alive and ready for some kicking!

 

[PaperBeetle]

So, despite redlining in our last combat, we survived against the odds. A quick roll of the RNG and bingo! promotion from Veteran to Elite. 3 promotions in 3 battles, we must be MIL? Well, after spending the next two turns fortified in a barracks, we are fully healed and ready to return to the battlefield, this time with an extra hit point, the chance to spawn a leader, and of course a better chance of retreating if the fight goes against us.
Just one thing worries me: the oft-reported curse of the elite unit, whereby elites seem curiously incapable of winning battles that equivalent veterans could manage with their eyes shut. AI cheating or cognitive bias? Maybe I should start a thread about it General Discussions and watch the fur fly.

Anyway, welcome back to the team Bucephalus, Kulko, PrinceMyshkin and socral. And welcome on board CommandoBob, Rodent and Whomp. We sound like a pretty strong team, although with the community distilled down into just 4 teams, Ivan, Klarius and Spooks all have impressive line-ups too. I have absolutely no idea what order the 4 teams are going to finish in, but I'll be watching those progress graphs like a hawk.

Oh and for those that haven't played with me before: Hi, my name is PaperBeetle and I am a Civilization addict. Hi, my name is PaperBeetle. I mostly play and post at weekends or between 10pm and 4am GMT. My areas of expertise are micromanagement, spreadsheets, graph-watching and fog-gazing (I can't see anything at all of interest in the fog in the image Alan provided ).

[/sign-in]

 

[Kulko]

I have absolutely no idea what order the 4 teams are going to finish in, but I'll be watching those progress graphs like a hawk.

[/sign-in]

Since the others are SGOTM Regulars that's easy:

Elite
A long while nobody
The Regular crowd

@others: We should force PB limit himself to 1-2 Graph Hawking Analyses per Turnset. Otherwise he will try to predict things like the exact date where klarius let somebody else play a turnset and whether Ivan Knights army is right or left-handed out of the graphs.

 

[Rodent]

He had been through So much. He had lived with the Bad-Smelling Fight-seeking Vikings, He had lived through some old man's Nightmare of Arranging Everything in Straight Lines, He had Participated in the FREE-GONG war and could'nt shoot a thing, And he had lived through a Rat's Dream of Defeating the World without moving out of the city.

And now He had Trudged through the Deserts of time and the Civilization Fanatic Forums and arrived at entirely the wrong place.

Elite he Mused, I am barely a Veteran, And I would fare miserably but for the Rat-Instinct, I only Pray to god that the Rat Instinct and the Rat Art of hiding in a hole will help me through this

Hello to all. PrinceMyshkin, CommandoBob can Introduce me

I like doing War, and dislike micromanagement. Will try my best though

And in the Meanwhile, lets hand out something for discussion. Do we move the settler for the wheat or do we stay put? Seeing that it is an plain wheat, I would favour staying put.

What do we build first? warrior or Curragh? Traditional wisdom suggests a Warrior but a Curragh can scout much faster, if only the coasts.

 

[Bucephalus]

Checking in.

It's good to see so many familiar 'faces', especially my old mentor, Whomp.

Should be a blast.

 

[socralynnek]

The only real alternative I am seeing at the moment, would be to settle 1E. But then we are not coastal anymore and lose the wheat, too. Building an early curragh might pay off.

So, I am also voting for staying where we are.
Food, happiness, commerce, all is there. Looks like a nice starting position.

 

[Kulko]

warrior first saves a turn, overall, as the breakpoints come out badly for the curragh and the warrior in the other case.

I have done a rough draft which does not yet include MM to the oyster whenever we have excess production.

 

[Bucephalus]

I see no advantage in moving unless the worker move reveals anything better, which it won't do unless we decide to improve the wines tile first. What does Paperbeetle's infamous spreadsheets tell us about that?

Edit: crossed with Kulko. And I forgot we have a Scout.

 

[Rodent]

I wont even bother to read the Graph and go with what you are suggesting.

Actually, a Curragh this early will have a hard time Finding any civs apart from Seafaring ones since they will be unlikely to have their borders this close, and meeting a unit is a chance thing.

So Warrior first is a good idea

 

[PaperBeetle]

Settling in place is a no-brainer. Work the moo of course, so the worker goes there to irrigate and road. The first build looks like a 10-shielder, but we could try a second scout instead of an axe. Having done the moo, the worker needs to head over to the wheat, but does it stop to road the plains ivory on the way? The second build could be a curragh, in which case we can run a settler factory at size 5.10 > 7.10, as per Kulko's spreadsheet. Alternatively, we could put a worker in instead of the curragh, in which case the factory runs at 4.10 > 6.10. In either case, the granary is done in turn 22, and the 4-turn settlers start coming immediately after that.
Or how about scout, worker, curragh, followed by granary on turn 23 (with a chop) and then 4-turn settlers at size 4.15 > 6.15?

 

[CommandoBob]

I like the idea of a second worker, since we could connect the Ivory before we need it greatly, that is, at size 2. (I like connecting luxuries early.) If we have a 4 turn settler pump, we'll need those workers for early improvements and roading. After the granary I favor building a rowbat, where we can us our extra movement (which is not the same as in a normal game) to meet civs faster.

Being SEA on this map, it seems sort of obvious that we would want to be tech brokers, right?

We are the only SEA in this game, according to the opening post by AlanH. And we have an Archipelago (?) land mass. Which means that we may not have a lot of room for a whole bunch of cities on this landmass. The last Archipelago map I played was SGOTM 12(?) with Theodora and the 1BC UN. I'm not very familiar with them.

Which is another way of saying, How fast can we get to Galleys (overseas settler pairs)?

 

[PaperBeetle]

Well 60% archipelagos typically turn out a lot like 70% continents in terms of the size and number of landmasses, it's just that the shapes of the landmasses are more intricate. So under normal 60% arch circumstances I would happily take the time to set up a settler factory. Of course, this being an SGOTM, the circumstances may not be normal, but our scout should be able to confirm that for us before we have to make any firm decisions.

We have a strong starting location; a fast 4-turner, a river, 2 luxes. And I presume Portugal starts with Alphabet, so the Republic slingshot looks pretty easy if we want it. That would likely delay Mapping such that we would trade for it rather than research it ourselves. I guess we only need to get Mapping before the point at which we run out of expansion room.

How fast does a SEA curragh travel under differential naval movement? 5 I think, which will mostly translate to 3 tiles per turn. Also, I noticed in the last game (as Henry sunk our entire Portuguese invasion force) that the carrack has not had its movement points boosted for different movement. I think this means that it is stuck at 4, which is pretty lame.

 

[CommandoBob]

Common Games
Back in Who-5: Tom Tom Club builds a party lounge training game, Bucephelas and I were students at the feet of Whomp, back in his pre-Moderator days. That SG started in May 06 and finished in March 07.

PrinceMyshkin I have met in the Multi Team Demo Game II, but we were/are on different teams. We had a brief but cordial exchange of PMs.

Rodent and I have played in several recent SGs; Rod1- Something Enjoyable and eldar08: Gridlocked! come to mind, but there may been others.

I think that PaperBeetle was part of Team KISS in MTDG 1; if so we were teammates briefly.

I haven't had the privilege of playing with socralynnek or Kulko until now.

Playing Style
I'm trying to be a better micro-manager. I'm much better than I was, but I haven't graduated to Spreadsheet Analysis yet. I understand it and can follow it; I just can't bring myself to create one for the game. Not yet, anyway.

My first SGOTM was #9, fresh with one Monarch win after playing around for a long time at Chieftian. My strategy skills were poor and my grasp of Civ3 at this level of play was nil, so I made some mistakes. As a result of that, we (the team) began to create a strategy post before we played our turns. It would include such things as long range goals, mid range goals, short range goals. Short range goals became pretty specific, down to worker turns, next city builds, when to hire/fire specialists and things like that. The idea was that by planning and posting, the rest of the team could spot errors and mistakes.

I still have that habit (create a strategy plan, post it, wait for feedback, and then play my turns based on the feedback). I don't know if fits into this team's playing style, which is why I mention it.

 

[Kulko]

Playing style
Being a team of seasoned veterans we have adopted very lax rules. We discuss a lot, but there are no enforced rules about it. Your strategy posts are certainly welcome.

Roster
Normally we tried to alternate stronger and weaker players, but looking a our roster I would have to play every second set then. SO we need a new approach. How about switching weekend/weekday players to get a smooth playing style.

Strategy
The goal is Domination with many survivors and I think we should try to keep everybody alive in the beginning.
Since the capitals of crippled AIs will become a culture hassle over time I suggest to gift them a new city from time to time and destroy the old palace. That should take care of that problem.

We are located on the bigger central landmass, and first target should be fast conquest of all our ancestral lands.

Tactics
coming up shortly after I tuned the excel.

 

[Bucephalus]

Roster

I'm fairly flexible, but school holidays cramp my style a bit due to child care issues; it's half-term atm, so I'd prefer to avoid an early slot.

Strategy

Further to what Kulko said, we should keep a close eye on AI-AI wars, gifting cities as necessary to avoid elimination of weak civs.