SGOTM 18 - Phoenix Rising

[AlanH]

Welcome to your BtS SGOTM 18 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, where teams and staff may post non-spoiler information of general interest.

You can find the Game Details in the first post of the Maintenance Thread. If any changes occur in the game settings or rules, I shall post them in that thread, and edit that post.

Please wait until your team leader/administrator/scribe has reserved a couple of top posts in this thread for game admin information. Then post here to let your team know you have arrived.

Good luck, have fun ... and never trust a mapmaker

 

[Gumbolt]

Never really happened as we pretty much played turn by turn.

 

[Gumbolt]

Please read all of these team rules!!

Summarized Team Rules
Read the various Rule threads.
Check your ini files so that autosave is set to every turn.
No reloads from previous point, ever! If you make a mistake we have to live with it!!
No reading of other team threads. The best way to resist temptation is
to use the Subscribed threads tool under quick links or bookmark our thread! Similarily, do
not download other team saves. if you do accidentally view anothers teams thread or save please pm AlanH with details of what happened and wait for instructions.
When looking at the save, do not perform any irreversible action! You
can't trade, whip or move units.
If the game crashes, stop and pm AlanH with details of what happened.
Wait for instructions.

Suggested:
Save often manually
Do stop if an opportunity becomes available or something goes wrong.
Pause the game before uploading/examining it.
When testing the game, make sure you're using the test game! Markers
will be added here and there to help.
Let us know when you can't make a deadline or RL becomes busy.

A few notes of etiquette: Please read this before we begin the game.

Spoiler :

1. Active participation -- Your contribution to every set is important, even if it's a 'I agree'. Although everyone might have real life issues sometimes, it's courteous to notify the team of you absence.
Due to size of team players who choose to show up just before and after their turnset may be skipped or marked as ‘assumed away’. You must try to participate in each turnset where possible. This is a team game afterall. This rule is to make sure that the team is not left waiting for a player to show and to reward those that actively take part.
2. Plan of playing -- The spirit of SG is to play the game following the consensus of the team decision. Therefore the player who is UP should post a clear plan for discussion. Guidelines have been posted for the contents of your plan in the next post. It might be that the team decides to head in a direction you were opposed to, it does not mean you are wrong but rather that the team believes the odds of winning are more likely with the decided approach.

3. Timing -- In the pre-thread we agreed to use the following as upper bounds for discussing, planning and playing the set. Since the game cannot last forever, it is important to respect these in order not to be rushed to finish the game later on.
-24 hours for 'got it' and pre-play-plan [0~24] - Make sure you can open the save before saying 'got it'.
-24 hours for discussion and first plan draft[0~48]
-24 hours for edits [24~72]
-24 hours to play [72~96]

Please keep in mind those are upper bounds, meaning if a consensus is reached before the time is fully elapsed, the set can proceed ahead.
Once again it would be greatly appreciated if you can warn the team, either in this thread or via pm, of your absences so that we do not have to wait for a consensus or skipping. You will be skipped if you cannot meet the time frame.

3a. Please include a report when you submit the save. You may submit your report later but it would be preferable to have it before the discussion on the next set starts.

4. Do not automate workers without first discussing with your team.

5. Do not use city governors without first discussing with your team. Or at least if you do, check cities every turn and remove the governor at the end of your round.

6. Do not leave units on goto orders that extend beyond your set of turns. If for some reason this happens, then be sure to inform your team as to what the unit(s) is/are going.

7. Finish all your discussed turns and upload the game saved at the END of the discussed part.

8. Respect your team mates, and demand their respect. Take care of your writing style, accept that people whose first language is not English will use English in a different way than you are used to. Disagree by all means, but don't make it personal, and don't take it personally.

9. SG's are team games. Be a good team member. Post your ideas, argue your corner and encourage and praise your team mates. Don't be afraid to post in your game thread. That is what it's for.

10. Have fun and remeber a Phoenix always rise from the ashes!!!

How a set will be played

Spoiler :

There are 7 major parts to every set.
1. Pre-Play-Plan: see below.
2. Voting: everyone voices his opinion on the issues raised in 1. Voting should only be used as a last resort.
3. Plan: see below.
4. Critique of the Plan: once the Plan is posted, players should try/read the plan and look for anything they'd like to change. This is where you must support your arguments!
5. Final Plan: tries to glue everything together.
6. Play the Set: see below.
7. Post the Report: see below

What is the Pre-Play-Plan?

The Pre-Play-Plan is to initiate the discussion on the diverging possibilities at the start of a set. This includes, but not limited to, EP focus, general city micro, general worker micro, general techs. Basically, make an idea of what you want to do with your 5-10 turns.

In the spoiler below are general ideas as to what you can cover with the pre-play-plan. Not everything needs to be discussed, only the obvious decision points.

Spoiler :

What your plan should cover:

The plan must contain 2 detailed parts:

1. What you will check for every turn (EP, trades available, GPT available etc.) [this is easy]

2. Turn-by-turn worker moves, city micromanagement, unit movement and or general guidelines as to what we can't control via test game. [this is the hard part]
The team might at one point decide to slack on #2 once the game becomes well in hand.

How your set should go:
• Play according to the plan
• If something unexpected (or an opportunity) comes up, STOP AND CHECK WITH THE TEAM.
• If you have to adapt, do so!
• You can add markers in game during and at the end of your set. It's a lot easier on team members to figure where units are going.
• If something unexpected comes up, you can (and possibly should) stop and make a short report to the team so we can decide how to move ahead

~~~~

What your set report should cover:
• WHEOOHRN alerts and possible/likely targets
• GGs in distant lands and Great Engineers
• When to renegotiate trades
• What you were planning for the future
• How the plan worked out/didn't
• Anything unexpected

__________________

 

[Gumbolt]

Spoiler :

KCD game description.

Spoiler :

This thread gives you and the Staff somewhere to post about non-spoiler issues relating to the game. It is a way of communicating to the rest of the players outside your team, and with the staff, about matters of general interest that affect your team or everyone. You can post about bugs, rule clarifications, problems with the roster etc., but please do not divulge information about your team's progress. Please subscribe to this thread so that you are kept up to date with new information as the game proceeds. If you need to raise specific issues concerning only your team, then please contact me or kcd_swede by PM.

The team lists are at the end of this post.

Thanks for this scenario again go to kcd_swede.
Image
Transmission from Basil Exposition, British Intelligence: Austin Powers, we have received reports that Dr. Evil has thawed from suspended animation, and is working on a devious plot to destroy the world, by travelling back in time to the Ancient Era. To make matters worse, there are reports that Goldmember has esca&#8230;&#8230;<transmission breaks off>

Sssss&#8230;.kkkkrrrrkk&#8230;ssss&#8230;&#8230; Hello Austin Power-less (Mwahaha). As we speak, my henchman &#8220;Fat Bastard&#8221; is paying a visit to your Swinger&#8217;s Pad. I also want you to know that I have in my &#8220;impenetrable&#8221; (finger gesture for quotation marks) fortress the means of your ultimate destruction. I will bring the world to its feet at my knees <whispers heard off-screen> I will bring the world to its knees at my feet!

Once I locate those bluish-green glowing rocks that my &#8220;future self&#8221; promised were around here somewhere&#8230; then you are doomed. You will not stop me this time, because I know all your teleportation tricks&#8230; and have used them against you; this trick has enabled me to send my clone Mini-Me to steal your mojo. By now, your mojo should be in orbit around Alpha Centauri for perpetuity. Mwahaha!<transmission fades>

Basil (British &#8220;Intelligence&#8221: Austin&#8230; we need you to save the world by going backwards in time to the Ancient age. From there you must develop the means to destroy Dr. Evil in his lair. Our secrets of teleporting have been compromised, so it would be highly advised to use them only with the utmost care. It would be far safer for you to find some way to drop from the skies to get in to his lair.

Austin: Did he say&#8230; so uncool!!!... I have to get my mojo back, baby!

Basil: Austin, Austin, please focus on what is important.

Austin: I am!
Basil: Calm, Austin. There are ways to get your mojo back-- you can simply build a spacecraft and fly it to Alpha Centauri. Or, you would develop an all new mojo if you garner enough support within the UN mojo-reso-lulu-lution. Or you can become a Legendary Swinger in three cities, and nobody will ever ask where that other mojo went. But&#8230; the MISSION&#8230; the most important thing is to raze Dr. Evil&#8217;s Lair to the ground, before his Preparation H can attract an hemorrh&#8230; an asteroid to destroy the world.

Austin: My Swinger&#8217;s Pad&#8230; that would not be groovy if Fat Bastard breaks my waterbed. All those etchings I use to lure the chicks could be ruined! The place is an icon of the hipsters. It&#8217;s practically Legendary. It&#8230;

Basil: Take it easy&#8230; British Intelligence will support you in espionage efforts to return your Pad into a Legendary place. Just don&#8217;t forget you have to find some way to defeat Dr. Evil.

Austin: Groovy! Will you put 20-30 spies at my disposal, then?

Basil: Don&#8217;t be ridiculous, Austin. I meant moral support ; we don&#8217;t have the resources for anything else. And ONLY your Swinger&#8217;s Pad is authorized for espionage&#8230; if you are caught using espionage to increase the mojo by more than one Great Artist bomb worth of culture in any other &#8220;legendary&#8221; city involved in a Culture Victory, your mission will be compromised (i.e. you fail this game objective).

Austin (mumbling): &#8230; destroy Dr. Evil&#8217;s Lair and get my mojo back, and get my Legendary pad back&#8230; this is not going to be easy. At least I still have that old Fembot. Groovy!

Basil: &#8230;and Austin, one more thing. The Ancients were not as &#8220;into&#8221; Liberalism as you are used to, so do please be careful how you behave.


(Space, Culture, or Diplo victory required, and Dr Evil&#8217;s Lair must be razed. Also, you must recapture your Swinger&#8217;s Pad, and make it Legendary without the use of culture bombs aka Great Works from Great Artists&#8212;you may NOT use a GArtist to create a great works to the Swinger&#8217;s Pad, because only Austin&#8217;s own etchings are allowed there. For background and clarification on this &#8220;culture through espionage&#8221; mechanism, refer to this thread and links therein: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=499578) (Please note, espionage missions in at least two of your Legendary Cities cannot include culture from espionage &#8220;spread culture missions&#8221; that is equal to or greater than what one Great Works &#8211;culture bomb Great artist&#8212;would provide).


There are 4 normal civilizations in this game, but unfortunately they all suspect their wives of cheating with you&#8230; so there are still some bad feelings there. If you win by UN diplomatic victory, you must have at least TWO other civilizations vote for you in the diplomatic victory resolution.

There are no barbarians&#8230; However, Goldmember is leading a Minor Civ, which is the same thing as barbarians, only different. Discover, learn, have fun.

Some early wonders have been distributed among the civilizations. To help you out, Soundjata has given you the Pyramids. Unfortunately for you, I, Dr Evil had other plans&#8230;the Pyramids were left in your Swinger&#8217;s Pad and Fat Bastard is about to capture it. You need to get it back before the game is over, of course. And it is FORBIDDEN to change civics BEFORE the Swinger&#8217;s Pad is captured by Fat Bastard.

The game begins with your Fembot minding house at your Swinger&#8217;s Pad, and Fat Bastard knocking on the door. Use the Fembot (MedicIII scout) as you like, she&#8217;s only a robot -- with a really nice rack. (I mean luggage-rack&#8230; what&#8230; which gutter did your mind wander to?).
&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;
Since the flimsy and implausible premise for this scenario is relying on space/time travel, I want you to know that you start with the Technology of Fusion. And since Austin would never go anywhere/anywhen without the possibility to find a smashing polyester suit, you also go with Composites. On the other hand, Dr Evil and Goldmember know a thing or two about Fission&#8230; but you and everyone else will have to figure that out for yourselves. Some other techs to some civs can be there. You all start in the Ancient Era, however. To prevent this game taking a &#8220;perpetuity&#8221; for you teams to complete, we have given all civilizations (including you) the technologies of masonry, and pottery. Everyone else also gets sailing, but not you. You have contact with all civilizations at game start, but they each like Dr. Evil better than they like you, because he is smarter, more intelligent, more clever, more shrewd and more cool (so cool, in fact, if he were any cooler, he&#8217;d still be frozen). Mwahahaha!

Victory conditions:

Spoiler :

Victory conditions:
Must (A) Raze Dr Evil&#8217;s Lair; and (B) Own the Swinger&#8217;s Pad, and (C) make the Swinger&#8217;s Pad reach Legendary Culture without use of &#8220;culture bombs&#8221;, and (D) You MUST use Free Religion civic as soon as (or if) you learn Liberalism, and then may not switch out of Free Religion until the end of the game; and (E) you must win the game in one of the following three ways: (1) UN Diplomatic Victory with votes from two civilizations other than yourself; or (2) Culture Victory with espionage contributing less than 4000 culture in at least two of your Legendary Cities; or (3) Spaceship arrives at Alpha Centauri.

Please recall that it is still forbidden to gift/liberate cities to a civilization you are at war with except as part of a Peace Treaty. YOU may not raze the Swinger&#8217;s Pad. In the very unlikely event that the Swinger&#8217;s Pad is razed by someone else, you are permitted to found a new Swinger&#8217;s Pad on the ruins of the old.

Laurels will be awarded to the team completing the most number of objectives, and ties in that regard will be decided by how fast you can do it.

To summarize, the objectives are as follows:
1) Dr Evil&#8217;s lair is razed
2) You own the Swinger&#8217;s Pad
3) The Swinger&#8217;s Pad is Legendary without using Great Works (&#8220;culture bombs&#8221
4) You win the game by one of these conditions:
a. Spaceship lands at Alpha Centauri
b. UN diplomatic victory with 2 civs voting for you
c. Culture Victory where Culture Through Espionage does not exceed 4000 culture in at least two of your Legendary Cities.
5) You win the game in any fashion, including the above, but also including Conquest/Domination/Time/Religion/UN with less than 2 other civs votes/Culture VC that does not comply with above restrictions/and anything else not covered.

Yes, if you complete objective #4, then objective #5 is also completed (two for the price of one). Objective #5 is to give you incentive to play on even after you realize that you will fail Objective #4. Mwahaha!

Breaking conditions on use of Liberalism requiring Free Religion or changing civics on turn zero is grounds for disqualification, not part of the objectives.

Game Settings:


Game Options:
Require Complete Kills
No Vassals
No Huts
No Random Events
No Barbarians
No Technology Brokering
New Random Seed on reload

Opponents: 6 AI (4 Normal, Dr Evil, and 1 Minor Civ Goldmember)
All capitols pre-settled by evil mapmakers
Normal Speed
Immortal Difficulty
Ancient Era - all civs start in Ancient Era despite some advanced techs already known.
Map: Heavily edited, flat wrap, was based on Great Plains - barely recognizable now.
Contact at start of game with all AI
At war with Dr Evil at game start
Always at war with Goldmember as he is a Minor Civ.
[/SPOILER]

Timetable

The Team Saves will be available here on August 5th.

The completion deadline will be December 5th, 2013.. Plan your game accordingly, and please avoid a last minute struggle to meet the deadline.

Links to saves and progress information are available on the SGOTM Progress Page

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay things to do.
1.Can you all confirm you have buffy up and running for new players.
2. Make sure to bookmark or subscribe to this thread on your pc/mobile/ any other device you may use to browse the forum. Remember we are not allowed to visit other teams thread until we have finished our game.
3. Signing in. Normally requires a simple message saying hello and confirming the above.

When the live save arrives. Remember if it is not your turn set then you should only view the live save in pause mode. If we make a mistake with the live save we have to live with it.

If everyone is happy for me to do the admin I will take this on. I have kind of reserved the slots already.

Once everyone is here we can start thinking about the game and strategies.

 

[Fippy]

Hello there, Gummibears for Captain again and so on

 

[TalladegaKnight]

Checking in. Hello fellow Firebirds.

 

[Packers5280]

Checking in, ready for action. 2nd Gum for captain.

 

[lymond]

Gumbo for Chief Bear

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay good to see so many quick to reply. Looks like I have been made captain again. Jog slowly for your life in any direction away from me!!! Fools!!!!

Welcome back Lymond and Fippy with her Celtic music taste. (Is she going soft in her old age?)

Okay Windows is almost installed here. Service pack 1 is 1gb??? WTF. Fortunately I had fibre broadband installed a week or so back.

Hope to install Civ 4 at some point. Let's not push the boat out for one night.

I will update first 4 posts at some point.

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay civ 4 installed. Any tips for installing buffy?

 

[ben-jammin]

I almost never play games into the modern era so someone is going to have to explain to me how starting with fusion and composites will be relevant to our strategy. Accelerating a space victory is all I can think of? But it seems to me that a culture victory should be faster.

 

[TalladegaKnight]

I almost never play games into the modern era so someone is going to have to explain to me how starting with fusion and composites will be relevant to our strategy. Accelerating a space victory is all I can think of? But it seems to me that a culture victory should be faster.

Not sure either. I agree on culture being fastest. What's our 2nd VC to get objective #5? Domination?

Admittedly still trying to wrap my head on all the rules/objectives for this one.

We can use espionage to get the swingers pad to legendary but no great artist culture bombs? But only 4000 culture worth of espionage in the other 2 cities?

 

[Packers5280]

Preferably, we need to win to with objective 4. Objective 5 is if we can't win culture, space race, or UN with 2 other civs vote. Objective 4 is preferable, and it also meets 5 as well. So dom/conquest are VC options that we do not want. That's at least how I understand it.

I agree, though, Culture is going to be the easiest. We can only use culture through espionage one city more than 4000. Since we are going to lose SP, that would make the option to use espionage in SP. Then we could use artists to culture bomb the two other cities.

 

[TalladegaKnight]

Preferably, we need to win to with objective 4. Objective 5 is if we can't win culture, space race, or UN with 2 other civs vote. Objective 4 is preferable, and it also meets 5 as well. So dom/conquest are VC options that we do not want. That's at least how I understand it.

I agree, though, Culture is going to be the easiest. We can only use culture through espionage one city more than 4000. Since we are going to lose SP, that would make the option to use espionage in SP. Then we could use artists to culture bomb the two other cities.

We have to assume the gold is going to take all objectives, therefore the 2nd VC is needed. AP dovetails with Culture VC as well.

 

[Packers5280]

Straight from the horse's mouth:

If you cannot achieve #4 (I'm not guaranteeing its even possible), go for 5 rather than lose the game. Otherwise, you'd be wise to go for option 4 (and 5 is automatically completed).

Hmmm... the logic is that winning the game with the restricted VC's is twice as important as any other objective you might have. But I suspect that to win laurels you will need all objectives completed. On the other hand, teams that might come up short in the restricted VC's will prove themselves ahead of all the teams that Dr Evil destroys utterly. (Not saying this will happen, just... well... it could happen). Imagine a scenario where evil mapmaker did something screwy making his own objectives unobtainable. Would you be happy that laurels went to a team with 3 objectives complete that was defeated by an AI winning over a team that won the game but only managed 2 of the objectives? That's a rhetorical question. The mampmaker would not be happy. Go for the gold, ignore existence of option #5. For now.

This is kcd's reply in the pre-game discussion thread to the questions on VC 4 versus 5. So, culture, space, or UN with 2 AI's vote>>>domination or conquest.

 

[Gumbolt]

Guys if diplomatic is an option then this will be much faster than culture. Pends on map and what is out there. Not sure why we have been given those techs.

Just Izuul/Pepe26 to sign in?

 

[Fippy]

I think there's no way of discussing VCs yet
What we will need..seeing how much AIs hate us (kcd gave hints they will), if getting some friends is possible, and so on.
Culture is slower than diplo, and teams going for medals will do everything to avoid being stuck with culture.

 

[ben-jammin]

UN diplo win might be faster but might be hard to time with the one city going legendary, which could very well take longer than the diplo victory normally would on it's own. As Fippy says we wont know until we see what kind of negative modifier we've been given with all the AIs, available land. We don't even know what traits we have?

 

[Packers5280]

Yeah, thats true about waiting and seeing about the other AI's before deciding what victory we want. We do know the traits. I believe kcd said we are playing as FDR, so our traits are organized and industrious.