SGOTM8 - Bede

[AlanH]

Welcome to your game thread. Please use it and subscribe to it. 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 August 5, midnight, server local time.

Thanks go to Gyathaar for coming up with the variant and developing the map.

The variant is Hydrophobic Conquest. You are America, your goal is to conquer your archipelago world, and you are afraid of water.

The rules are simple:

1. You will build no boats. Seaborne units are all disabled for America.
3. You must win by Conquest. America must be the only civ standing at the end of your game.
4. Red and Gold Laurels will be awarded respectively to the members of the C3C and Classic teams achieving the fastest conquests.
5. PTW and Vanilla teams are not permitted to leader rush Great Wonders before 1000 BC in this game

Here's the start:

​

Map Parameters
Playable Civ - America
Opponents - Six, preselected
World size - 80 wide by 80 high. (Small)
Difficulty - Emperor
Landform - Archipelago
Barbarians - Raging

The map is handbuilt, and therefore may not have a standard configuration.

Game mods:
- America can't build boats. The AI can.
- All victory conditions are available except Diplomatic and Spaceship.
- Settlers, workers, scouts, explorers, leaders, cruise missiles and tactical nukes can be loaded into helicopters.
- A side effect is AIs can load tactical nukes into any boat with transport capacity ... so beware
- Bombers have lethal sea bombard only (lethal land bombard removed)
- Cruise missiles, stealth bombers and F-15 have both lethal sea and land bombard.

Additional change:
- C3C will use the same contact and map trading rules as Classic. Contacts can be traded between two civs when one of them knows Writing. Maps can be traded between two civs when one of them knows MapMaking.

The SGOTM Mediterranean resources are included in this game. If you have played SGOTM 7 then you will be ready. If not you may need to download and unzip a small graphics mod pack. Vanilla/Mac players need to install the GOTM mods. The best way to achieve this is to use the relevant All-in-one GOTM Installer for your OS, linked in my signature.

Please visit the following links to ensure that you are adequately prepared for this game. Vanilla players in particular should understand the late-game equalisation modifications that we don't often have to worry about.

The GOTM Reference Thread.
SGOTM Reference Thread.

Notes:

A. The Classic (Play the World and vanilla 1.29) versions of Civ3 AND Conquests version 1.22 (C3C) are all supported in this game. Because of the different game play, Classic and C3C teams will play for separate awards.
B. All teams must play the sponsored variant.
C. You MUST play from the start file assigned to your team. 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.

 

[Ghostwind]

I kinda want that hill to develop later in the game. I think I'd move SE and settle there. Plenty of grass to the east, and plenty of forest to chop. We still get 3 flood plains and a couple of later cities can split the rest. Second city is hard to plan, but maybe NE or SE of that mountain on the west side?

I wonder if this is a small island. Thinking about how tightly packed the cities should be. We'll probably be alone cept the barbs too.

~Ghostwind

 

[SpikeIt]

Hey. Checking in. This is going to be an interesting game indeed. Wouldn't that be the end all to be on this island all alone? A looong builders games until the lion is woken. I'd be partial to SE or S myself. I love ridding myself of desert tiles plus it has water (as does SE). And since we can't have boats, settling on the coast isn't so important - unless, as Ghost mentioned, we need to pack the cities in.

 

[azzaman333]

One point on settling on the coast. It potentially means that we are closer to another civ's island.
I like the sound of settling 1 SE, but there must be some sort of disadvantage.

 

[Bede]

So let's have the scout find out..

 

[juballs2001]

howdy... im juablls. you can call me that or jason...

i love civ 3 and am happy to be on this team


im thinking straight south, and im praying a resource appears on that tile early, hopefull iron or at the latest saltpeper.

hope we have a good game guys and im looking forward to it

 

[Ghostwind]

Hey Juballs, nice ta meet ya.

South would be my second option. If we have limited space though, I would like to make use of as many tiles as possible. As Bede said, I guess we'll have that scout have a look first.

After looking at the previous SGOTM game threads to get an idea of what kind of evil minds these map makers have, I noticed that in the last one or the one before the players were on an island all alone. Would they do that twice in row? Or 2 out 3?? Seems unlikely.

The rules state that you MAY NOT view the discussion threads of any team other than your own. DO NOT jeopardise your teams chances by doing this. You risk disqualifying your entire team.

Just in case anybody hasn't seen it yet. We are mostly SGOTM rookies, yes?

~Ghostwind

 

[SpikeIt]

Welcome to the fray Juballs. This should be a fun, but challenging game.

Good reminder there, Ghostwind. I caught that in the rule threads as well. Please everyone, be sure to read the rules for GOTM and SGOTM and don't wander into other team threads. There is a SGOTM scenario to download and the file upload is on a different page from this thread as well.

As for SGOTMs, I believe only Bede has played them before.

 

[M60A3TTS]

If you all don't mind, I'll be lurking in this one. Of course the relationship will be strictly monogamous.

 

[Bede]

Howdy M60, welcome to the gang of wannabes. Your thinking always appreciated.

Welcome juballs! This will be fun and we will win!

Second everything Spike and Ghost said. And don't forget to subscribe to the SGOTM8 Maintenance thread.

The opening save will be posted

Here as will the scoring tables for the ongoing game.

Each turnset's save has to be submitted to this page

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm.php

as well as being attached to your log post.


I can just about guarantee we will not be alone on our island, otherwise the tech pace would be tectonically slow.

As the game settings are Monarch we will need to drive the research pace, so getting as much gpt into the treasury as possible will be important as we will be spitting it right back out into the scientist's pockets.

Early scouts will also be important to make friends and visit friendly barbarians.

See you all on the fifth.

 

[Gyathaar]

As the game settings are Monarch

It's emperor.

 

[Bede]

Thanks for the clarification. I guess your playtesting is done.

So the changes the picture not at all, other than we will have to be more alert for tech trade opportunities than ever....

 

[AlanH]

as well as being attached to your log post.

No need to attach a separate copy to your post. Just right click/copy the url you get back when you submit the save, and paste it into your turn log between [url ] [/url ] tags. Or players can just go the the saves page and download from the team Bede "latest save" link there.

 

[M60A3TTS]

For those who haven't checked out the article in the War Academy by Cracker on opening moves, I would suggest that as a good reference. It includes a flood plain starting position.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/cracker/civ3_starts/gotm8_russ_move.htm

I'd like to know if anyone thinks Cracker would move our settler, just based on what we know at this time.

My own opinion is no, and unless the scout found food bonuses on the opening move, there would be no reason to do so.

My reasoning is first we lose that turn of productivity. Also, this is a strong commercial starting position. Production is decent with six plains tiles, which will give us a total of about 15 spt mined. Later on when fully developed with rails, factory and coal plant at pop 12, it will be able to do 40+ shields.

True, we have disease to contend with, but a move 1 south or southeast will still include FP tiles in the expanded city. Also even without boats, a harbor provides the capital extra food for when we get beyond pop 12. You would lose that moving 1 south.

Moving 1 SE will give us more grassland, but we get to pop 12 either way, and what is gained in production is lost in commerce. Something of a wash there. Finally, if we're at war and the AI lands troops on our shores, that hill could be a primary landing zone. Then it gets the defensive bonus. Yes, you can garrison it, but then you're paying that unit's support cost for a long time. The flip side is by settling in place, we get the defensive bonus with the city on the hill.

As Bede says, we'll see what our scout reveals.

 

[Bede]

At most I would consider moving 1S or 1SE.

1S if that is a desert tile, 1SE to keep the coast and get the forests.

But staying put has great advantages too. Those sheep are cattle on plains and if it were a riverside it would be the single most powerful field in the early game.

We want max commerce so plan the opening moves accordingly. If we do it right we will nail the Republic gambit.

 

[Ghostwind]

One of the reasons I want to move SE is that 1 or 2 future cities can then share the floodplains. There are so many of them. One city W and a little S. Another W and a little N. I don't know what the scout will find, but I think it would be advantageous to have 2 or 3 cities with quick growth potential without having to crowd them too much.

I usually don't like to move my first settler. But in this case, I'd do it.

~Ghostwind

 

[Bede]

YO, boots and saddles time, troopers.

And the save is attached for those who haven't found the scores page.

Who wants to be first in the barrel?

But before we move anything let's plot the opening twenty in some detail.

My short tewrm objective is maximum commerce, others may disagree, so let the discussion begin.

I'll be working on that this morning.

So, saddle up and have some fun!

 

[Ghostwind]

Well, I guess emperor doesn't change much for me, except plant the fear that we will end up last in tech.

I'll agree with maximum commerce. It will help pay for those techs. I don't really want to go first, but I will if asked to.

I suggest whomever does go first moves that scout, umm, S twice, or get on that Mountain to the W and then we can discuss what to do from there.

~Ghostwind

 

[Bede]

Never fear, follow the bouncing Bede and you will be first in tech, even at Emperor. Patience is the key, though.

On the other hand, we don't need to be first, we just need to be effective....

 

[SpikeIt]

I have no problem going first once we decide what we are doing. Commerce is fine with me as it makes sense. Commerce and growth and prepare for war to clear our lands if the land dictates. I can't see us moving the scout anywhere apart from S, SE. The reason being we are likely only going to consider a 1 tile move at the most for our settler. The choices are S or SE (or stay where we are), so we want to see beyond our current eastern line of site. Our first scout move isn't going to reveal anything since we are already on a hill, with expanded line of sight. Moving south, then SE will reveal what's beyond the lake and what's to our south which will determine if we bother moving.

Beyond those first crucial moves, the usual pump another scout or two seems in order. And then maybe a warrior (for barbs) and a granary so we can grooooow.