SGOTM 26 Pre-game Announcement and Discussion

[Noble Zarkon]

SGOTM 26 Announcement - Lady Stoneheart, Queen of the Ice Age

Winter has come - such a long, long Winter that Summer is regarded as a myth, no living person can remember the warmer times. Food is scarce, the land is tough, little grows, some animals are extinct unable to exist in such harsh conditions.

Society has regressed, most of the old ways have been forgotten, the gods abandoned as they have abandoned you, there is no hope just a daily fight for survival.

Then one day your advisors come to you - they have found an ancient text that seems to predict this never ending winter, and more importantly how to end it!

The text is difficult, many of the words are meaningless but together you piece together what it is saying. In order to end this winter you need to return to the faith of your forefathers that was brought to this land so long ago - the faith of the Seven.

Your people used to believe that there was one god with seven faces and this text reminds you of what you were taught:-

• 
  
  • The Prophet: represents divine justice, and judges the souls of the dead.
  • The Merchant: represents prosperity, fertility, and childbirth.
  • The Artist: represents purity, innocence, love, and beauty.
  • The Scientist: represents wisdom and foresight.
  • The General: represents strength and courage in battle.
  • The Engineer: represents creation and craftsmanship.
  • The Spy: The Spy represents death and the unknown.

Some maintain that the faith was not always like this and along the way something has been mangled or lost but you dismiss that as an old wives tale.

The text tells you that to end Winter you must build 7 cities, each a tribute to one face of god, each city must have a Temple of our state religion and also certain other buildings. You will need to put your best minds to work to establish how to create these buildings.

Prophet- Dun, Temple, Monastery, Cathedral, Moai, Great Wonder generating Great Prophet points

Merchant - Dun, Temple, Market, Bank, Wall Street, Great Wonder generating Great Merchant points

Artist - Dun, Temple, Theatre, Broadcast Tower, Globe Theatre, Great Wonder generating Great Artist points

Scientist - Dun, Temple, Library, Lab, Oxford University, Great Wonder generating Great Scientist points

General- Dun, Temple, Barracks, Drydock, Heroic Epic, Corporation HQ

Engineer - Dun, Temple, Forge, Industrial Park, Ironworks, Great Wonder generating Great Engineer points

Spy - Dun, Temple, Courthouse, Intelligence Agency, West Point, Great Wonder generating Great Spy points

You may construct other buildings in each city as well as the requirements noted above provided you only build exactly 6 Great Wonders and found exactly 1 Corporation.


Game Options
Rivals: 6 AIs
Difficulty: Emperor
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: One City Challenge, No Barbarians, No Events, No Goody Huts, No Vassals, Rising Seas
Victory Conditions: All enabled
Starting Techs: Fishing, Agriculture, Hunting
Starting Units: 7 Settlers

You may win by any method you desire.

Map settings
Map: Ice Age, edited
Mapsize: Standard

Versions

This game will be played in Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, version 3.19, using the BUFFY-3.19.005 HoF mod.

Buffy 005 prevents you building Settlers in OCC but allows any World Buildered units to settle so is essential for this game.

The sign-up thread is open.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Our leader, as you guessed, is Boudica of the Celts, the Celts normally start with Hunting and Mysticism but in this game have Hunting, Fishing and Agriculture.

• Traits: Boudica is AGGressive and CHArismatic, two warmongering traits. AGG gives half-price barracks and drydocks, and gives Combat I to melee and gunpowder units, meaning they start a little tougher than other units and get to the better promotions faster. CHA gives +1 and means that promotions happen more quickly.
  
  
• Her UU: The Gallic Warrior, a swordsman that starts with Guerrilla I. This gives a small advantage on a map with many hills, but many people think that isn't enough to make this an interesting UU. A Guerrilla II swordsman might not be as useful as a Guerrilla I/City Raider I on most maps; on a hilly map its ability to get to its destination faster could be helpful.
  
  
  
• Her UB: The Dun, a Wall that gives Guerrilla I to units built in the city. Unfortunately this doesn't synthesize with the UU, which already gets Guerrilla I. It would be nice if it were "advance one step on the Guerrilla chain" but that sort of promo doesn't happen in Civ IV.
  

And the start:-

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Note: the usual GOTM restrictions apply:

• No replaying
• No subsidizing resource trades with AI
• No goto mapping or flying camera,
• Only 1 tech from Oracle/Liberalism.

These bans or proposed bans are Not Applicable with this game setup.

• No liberating cities to a civ you are at war with (except in peace deal)
• Espionage Culture thru espionage
• Espionage points thru vassal release

Unless any of you can think of something we haven't - please let us know!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Open Questions

1. No Barbarians - losing a Settler would be game over so I propose disabling barbarians, anyone strongly disagree?
   
   
2. Ranking the teams - Obviously all teams meeting the requirements will be ranked first, for those that don't do we want some kind of penalty and how big should it be e.g. each city not meeting the requirements add 50 turns to finish date.
   
   
3. Given the amount of tech to be researched will the typical 3 months be long enough?

 

[Deckhand]

How many universities/theaters/banks do we need to build Oxford/Globe/Wall Street?

edit (too late) - revealing that could spoil the world size
enough to know they are buildable and more than one is needed.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

How many universities/theaters/banks do we need to build Oxford/Globe/Wall Street?

One as it's OCC!

You will not be able to build the Forbidden Palace as that requires 8 cities.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

revealing that could spoil the world size

World size is Standard, that's in the announcement

 

[lymond]

Seems easier to me just to have teams that meet the requirements eligible for medals and ranked accordingly (date/score). Those teams not meeting requirements are then ranked below based on date/score. (score being tiebreaker, ofc)

Are you not announcing the leader/civ yet?

I may misunderstand but are we required to produce each type of Great Person?

And lastly, Lady Stoneheart lives!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Seems easier to me just to have teams that meet the requirements eligible for medals and ranked accordingly (date/score). Those teams not meeting requirements are then ranked below based on date/score. (score being tiebreaker, ofc)

Noted.

Are you not announcing the leader/civ yet?

Correct, testing not complete yet so I'm holding off in case I change my mind - although I am on version 44 of the 2nd map!

I may misunderstand but are we required to produce each type of Great Person?

No - simply build 7 cities with the listed buildings.

And lastly, Lady Stoneheart lives!

 

[SittinDown]

I'm confused, forgive me. If it's One City Challenge, how do you get 7 cities?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm confused, forgive me. If it's One City Challenge, how do you get 7 cities?

You start with 7 Settlers!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Seems easier to me just to have teams that meet the requirements eligible for medals and ranked accordingly (date/score). Those teams not meeting requirements are then ranked below based on date/score. (score being tiebreaker, ofc).

Traditionally teams finishing on the same date have tied for laurels. SG25 was an exception and it made sense because the tiebreaker (most minister points) was an essential part of the game. Score has never been an essential part of the game and I don't see that it is in this scenario either so it doesn't make sense to me to use it as a tiebreaker. This is a friendly competition and having teams tie is fine in my eyes.

 

[Deckhand]

... This is a friendly competition and having teams tie is fine in my eyes.

Wait! What?
Team ties?
Are you suggesting each team create a tie and all members have to wear it?

Spoiler Sample :

 

[LowtherCastle]

Open Questions

1. No Barbarians - losing a Settler would be game over so I propose disabling barbarians, anyone strongly disagree?
   
   
2. Ranking the teams - Obviously all teams meeting the requirements will be ranked first, for those that don't do we want some kind of penalty and how big should it be e.g. each city not meeting the requirements add 50 turns to finish date.

1. Agree. No barbs.
2. Teams with cities missing requirements finish behind teams with cities missing fewer requirements. Rationale: 1. We have no idea how many more turns are needed to tech Mass Media, for instance, so how can we estimate the penalty in turns. 2. Otherwise teams can strategically lop off one segment of the tech tree to finish sooner and still win Gold. Is that what you want?

 

[LowtherCastle]

Wait! What?
Team ties?
Are you suggesting each team create a tie and all members have to wear it?

Spoiler Sample :

No, not at all. This:

Spoiler Only this one :

 

[Deckhand]

Lady Stoneheart, Queen of the Ice Age

And lastly, Lady Stoneheart lives!

Lady Stoneheart's heart is so hard,...

she refuses to let an enemy live
razes any cities she captures
and won't take vassals​

 

[lymond]

@LowtherCastle Totally agree...(on the tiebreaker, not that ugly tie )

@Deckhand this should be the only tie allowed:

Spoiler :

very sharp and stylish, I must say

 

[LowtherCastle]

@LowtherCastle Totally agree...(on the tiebreaker, not that ugly tie )

@Deckhand this should be the only tie allowed:

Spoiler :

very sharp and stylish, I must say

All right, all right.

Spoiler :

28-0. Really? I mean, really?

 

[Deckhand]

Teams should select and design their own ties.
This one might be ok for Phoenix Rising

Spoiler Phoenix :

 

[kcd_swede]

You allow city gifting, even though it would end in disqualification??? If you gift a city and recapture, won't it get razed being OCC? And you won't have any captured cities to gift. Am I missing something?