SGOTM 18 - Unusual Suspects

[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

 

[Trystero]

Unusual Suspects - SGOTM 18

You can view progress and download saves here.
Upload the save game from your turnset here.

Game information from the sign-up thread:


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 mwaha: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!

&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;..
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 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.


Timetable

The Pre-game Discussion Thread for this game is now open for business.

Please sign up in this thread by July 30th at the latest. To help us to assign players to teams, please indicate your preferred team, whether you have played previous SGOTMs or SGs, and the highest level of Civ4 difficulty you can typically win at.

The team discussion threads for this game will open on or before July 31st

The team starting saves will be available hereon Monday, August 5th.

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

Notes

• Versions
  This game will be played in Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, version 3.19, using the standard BUFFY-3.19.003 HoF mod, Unless stated otherwise in this thread before the game starts..
  If a later BtS patch is released during this game you will NOT be able to use it to play. You will need to complete this game in BtS version 3.19 before updating your copy of BtS, or you should create and update a separate copy.
  
  Macintosh players can only join in if they are able to run the Windows software on their system.
  
• Rules and Procedures
  Please visit the Civ4 SGOTM reference thread to check out the rules and procedures to ensure that you are adequately prepared for this game.
  
  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.

Please sign up for this game as soon as possible by posting your own details in this thread. I shall publish draft team lists below in the next ten days.

Please use the separate Pregame Discussion Thread for any non-sign-up questions or comments about this game. Since kcd_swede is the true Dr Evil behind this game, and he is away until July 23rd, I cannot promise to give definitive answers to detailed technical issues raised before that date.

 

[Trystero]

Team Rules*

Required

• Read the various rule threads posted by AlanH.
• Before playing every single turnset, verify that your ini file has the autosave interval set to 1.
• Before playing every single turnset, verify that the BUFFY log is enabled.
• After uploading your save file, post BOTH the CivFanatics log (displayed on the upload confirmation web page) and the BUFFY log.
• No reloads! We get one shot, no replays, period!
• No reading other team threads. The easiest way to do this is to use the thread tools to subscribe to this thread. You could also bookmark the thread.
• When looking at the save, do not perform any irreversible action. Do not move units, whip, or trade.
• The flying camera exploit is banned.
• If the game crashes, stop and PM AlanH with the details of what happened. Wait for instructions from AlanH before proceeding.
• Do not open auto saves except to recover from a crash.
• Stop and ask the team for advice if a new opportunity presents itself.
• Stop and ask the team if anything goes wrong.
• Have fun!

Strongly Recommended

• Make manual saves often, preferably every turn, in case we need to review diplomacy screens or other metrics.
• Pause the game before uploading or examining it.
• Put TEST flags on the map on test games, and name test games so it's obvious they aren't the real game.
• Let us know if you are unable to make a deadline, get too busy in real life, or are going offline for vacation.
• Do not automate workers.
• Do not use city governors.
• Do not leave units on goto orders.
• Have fun!

Etiquette

• Active participation -- Your contribution to every set is important, even if it's an 'I agree.' Although everyone might have real life issues sometimes, it's courteous to notify the team of your absence.
• Pre-Play Plan -- The spirit of succession games 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.
• Timing -- We would like to generally stick to a schedule, but it is more important to reach consensus and ensure quality of play. Some sets will take much longer than others. If the UP player cannot play within 48 hrs of consensus due to RL issues, please inform the team early.
• Please, please, please include a report when you submit the save, complete with the CivFanatics log AND the BUFFY log. You may submit your report later but it would be preferable to have it before the discussion on the next set starts.
• Finish all your discussed turns and upload the game saved at the END of the discussed part.
• Don&#8217;t be afraid to post things that may appear stupid or evident. Each player has strengths and weaknesses. There are numerous examples in the earlier SGOTM threads when the most simple rule has been unknown to players (such as the difference between peace treaty and cease fire). Don&#8217;t be afraid that other members will think you are stupid.
• Don&#8217;t play intoxicated (from alcohol, drugs or smoke). Don&#8217;t play when you are too tired. Don't play when your kids or spouse are talking to you.
• 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.
• Use smilies and emoticons in your posts. Jokes, humor, sarcasm, and offensive language can be misinterpreted.
• Remember that a lot of players read what we post. Don't be rude or disrespectful to any player not on our team.
• SG's are team games. Be a good team member. Post your ideas, argue your case, and encourage and praise your team mates. Don't be afraid to post in our game thread. That is what it's for.
• Have fun!

Turn Sets

There are 7 major parts to every set.

1. Pre-Play Plan: see below.
2. Voting: everyone voices his or her opinion on the issues raised in 1.
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 10/15 turns.

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.

1. Technologies

• What techs are you aiming for? (One, a beeline ex. Literature, part-research for trading)
• What trades will you attempt with who and when? (When to sell for gold ex. first opportunity or wait for more, specify the leader(s), waiting for a wonder to finish so the AI get failure gold)
• Are we planning a Great Person bulb?

2. Dealing with AIs

• Resource trade negotiations
• Espionage assignment
• Open borders (cancel or allow)
• AI demands (resources, cancel trades, who do we send packing or not, technologies, war, religions, civics)

3. City placement and builds - mostly in the beginning

• Where are you planning on sending a settler?
• Are you sending a worker along?
• Is the land fogbusted/do we have an escort?
• Initial city builds (Monument/Granary etc...)
• Tile improvements around this city (food, hammers, commerce)

4. General micro

• Special tile assignments (starve city for specialists, switch to growth, etc.)
• Tile swapping with other cities
• Whips
• Build order (infrastructure/military/settlers/workers/wealth/science)
• Dealing with happy/health caps
• Worker improvements and moves

5. Civics and religion

• Are you planning on civic switches/do we need to acquire the techs? (Caste for border pops, slavery for whip...)
• Are we expecting a religion change?

6.War - if applicable

• Refuse/accept AI war demands
• Bribing civs to declare war or for stopping war
• War plan (who, how many units and how to acquire them, which cities to strike, scouting prior to DoW...)

7. Bigger picture

• Gifts (city, gold, techs...)
• What AI do we try to please
• Goals for the future
• Diplo manipulation
• Extras

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.

What your set report should cover:

• WHEOOHRN alerts and possible/likely targets
• Great Generals and Great Engineers in distant lands
• Religions founded
• Wonders built
• When to renegotiate trades
• What you were planning for the future
• How the plan worked out/didn't
• Anything unexpected
• Remember to post BOTH the CivFanatics log (found on the upload confirmation screen) and the BUFFY log.

*Copied from Chris' rules collection for SGOTM 17, which was itself liberally copied from various team threads in previous SGOTM games.

References and useful links:

• Civ4 SGOTM Progress page
• BTS 3.13 tech tree
• CFC On-line Civilopedia
• Civilization Modiki
• Useful Civ data files from kossin
• HoF dates for different Victory Conditions
• Great People bulbing order. See GPbulbs.pdf for compact format.
• Great People bulbing and trade mission value
• Trade route rules and examples (see posts 76 and 80)
• Barbarian spawning and behavior. Example screenie.
• Diplomatic relations modifiers
• AI DoW logic
• AI personalities
• AI attitudes
• AI behavior (Kossin)
• spiceant's "Diplomatic Victory" post
• TMIT's Guide to UN Victories
• The Power of Sushi
• Duckweed's Guide to Spaceship Victory
• Yxklyx's "Apostolic Palace Guide"
• OSS/RRRaskolnikov SGOTM13 Ref list (Includes VOU's Religion spread)
• Anion's BTS manual (what the official manual should have been)
• Stuporstar's "Comprehensive Guide to Terrain, Improvements, Resources, and City Placement"
• The Inner Workings of the Demographics Screen Explained
• Difficulty level information
• Complete Espionage Mission Cost Guide
• Espionage Economy vs. Manual Research
• Tachywaxon's Slave Economy
• Civ Illustrated #1 (Know Your Enemy) (a useful guide to AI leader behavior)
• The Culture through Espionage discussion thread

Test Games, Dot Maps, and Spreadsheets

• Instructions to make World Builder/test games
• The micromanagement spreadsheet
• shulec's espionage culture victory test games
• shulec's Minor Civ test game
• Pollina's test games
• SteelHorse's updated test game
• shulec's test save that attempts to incorporate the exact coordinates of Swinger's Pad and the settler
• shulec's dot map of potential second city sites and test game
• neilmeister's test trying the coastal fish site first
• shulec's turn 27 test save
• shulec's turn 31 test save
• shulec's updated turn 31 test save
• neilmeister's turn 41 test save
• shulec's updated turn 41 test save
• neilmeister's turn 51 test save

 

[Trystero]

Turn Set Summary

The Opening (neilmeister, t0-19) - With unbridled enthusiasm we send the super-settler north... and then north AGAIN!!! What bounties have been revealed! Gold! Marble! Irrigated wheat! We ascend that hill and send the warrior 1NW, and debate where to settle: on the PH or the desert 1S? After some discussion we settle on the PH. As expected we lose our Swinger's Pad to Dr. Evil (who switched to Police State after capturing the Mids). We open borders with Mansa and Gandhi to improve relations, and discover Goldmember is across the water to our south. PPP and report

 

[Trystero]

Welcome Unusual Suspects, you are free to post.

Proposed roster and current status:

• neilmeister (t0-19)(t70-79)(t130)(t155-176) - just played
• shulec (t19-31)(t79-91) - UP!
• SteelHorse (t31-41)(t91-102) - on deck
• Trystero (t41-51)(t102-113)
• Pollina (t51-62)(t114-125)
• Deckhand (t126-129)(t131-144)
• astre (t62-70)(t144-155)

 

[neilmeister]

Checking in.... woot

 

[neilmeister]

OK, strategemizing....

To summarize, the objectives are as follows:
1) Dr Evil’s lair is razed
2) You own the Swinger’s Pad
3) The Swinger’s Pad is Legendary without using Great Works (“culture bombs”)
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...

The game description tells us we almost definitely need paratroops to complete Condition 1. So, this appears to be the main stumbling block.

FYI, for the CtE technique, the spy mission gives +5% culture in a city, and it isn't 5% of our culture in the city, its 5% of total culture in the city.

SIP anyone ?

 

[shulec]

Checked in!

 

[SteelHorse]

Hi All!

 

[Trystero]

Hi everybody - and a special welcome to our newest teammates: shulec, astre, and Pollina.

I've started updating the intro posts. Let me know if there is anything you want included.

Remember to also subscribe to the SGOTM 18 Maintenance Thread to keep up to date on issues relevant to the game.

 

[Trystero]

OK, strategemizing....

The game description tells us we almost definitely need paratroops to complete Condition 1. So, this appears to be the main stumbling block.

Is stealing Fission from the AI for nukes a possible alternative? It avoids spending beakers on Fascism.

 

[Pollina]

checking in...

Is stealing Fission from the AI for nukes a possible alternative? It avoids spending beakers on Fascism.

Nukes can't raze cities, can they?

 

[neilmeister]

yes that is right, nukes can destroy all units, but not a city

 

[neilmeister]

Welcome to our new members btw, its kind of funny to be competing with shulec & Pollina, instead of against them.

 

[Trystero]

Well, it wouldn't be a SGOTM without me proposing some completely misguided strategy... Good night all.

 

[Deckhand]

Checking in.

Trystero - thanks for posting all the stuff up front.

 

[astre]

Hi all.
I used to play for Marple for the 2 previous SGOTM but marple made a stop this SG...
I applied to your team as i found the spirit in your team (i tend to read other teams threads at the end of SG to understand where we failed ) follow my vision of a SG. competitive but not too mutch

Some words about me:
For the log hours, I live in Europe and i 'm online at work nearly all the time and in evening time.
I'm quite experience with CIV with 2 SGTM and many classical SG. When play alone, i usualy play immortal with some try in diety.
I'm 37 and have 3 kids.
English is not my mother language but i'm not that bad with it ^^

This SGOTM seems like a crazy experience and I'm looking forward to play it with all of you.

 

[neilmeister]

Welcome aboard astre, I think you summed us up well. Competitive, thinking, but not crazy microing.

.. and your english is much better than my french, and I work for Safran (formerly Sagem) and travel to Paris at least once a year.

 

[Deckhand]

OK, we need to start doing some planning. Or do we?
Do we have anyone that knows how to analyze the demographics after the first turn? How much will that matter in this scenario?
Where do we move the scout, the settler, the warrior?
Do we pause and discuss after each move?
Trystero has "volunteered" to maintain list of who has played and whose turn it is. thanks
What should the turn order be? Past games we played in order of checking-in to this thread.
What are our immediate decisions?

 

[Trystero]

I would start out by going in check-in order (not counting my first posts). That was my plan anyway... I'm pretty flexible/accommodating.

We should certainly start planning/discussion (I think). Once again I think early scouting will be critical. I think there was some discussion of improving our early micro after the last SGOTM. I'm afraid I haven't thought about the current game very much since I just started a new job, and I'm trying to get oriented there. So I would certainly benefit from team discussion.