The Community Deity Game #12 - Byzantium

[beetle]

Welcome to the twelfth installment in the Community Deity Game series!
CDG 12 - Byzantium a.k.a. Feel the beat of my Dromon!
We aim to post an interesting challenge at the beginning and middle of each month. There is a suggested Victory Condition and a list of Achievements for each map. Please see the CDG Series Discussion Thread to express yourself if you have remarks and ideas. Please note that maps you wish to share must have map packs disabled, so those who do not have them can enjoy the challenge. To do this, you go into the DLC option from the Main Menu and untick the options for ‘Explorers Map Pack’, ‘Scrambled Nations’, and ‘Scrambled Continents’. You will need to do this every time you start a new game; or you might just simply delete the map packs from your computer.

When posting about your victory, please begin the post with the turn number, victory condition, and achievement points in bold text - e.g. “T247 DiploV, 10 points”. This is so the kind volunteer who updates the finishers spreadsheet can see it more easily.

We welcome all comments and write-ups and invite you to post screenshots of key moments and the moment of victory (if you are successful), but please use the SPOILER tag if you post a picture, make a comment about which civs are in the game, about natural wonders, locations of ancient ruins, terrain features, luxes, resources, etc. In short, if it’s information you can only know by playing the game, don't spoil it for others by divulging this information in the open. Thank you for your co-operation, and have fun!

Spoiler UA and UB :

In this game, you will be playing as Theodora of Byzantium, you possess Patriarchate of Constantinople and you choose one more belief than normal when you found a Religion. The belief may be any open pantheon, founder, follower, or enhancer (but, sadly, not a reformation belief).

You can train the Dromon, which replaces the Trireme but is a ranged unit which upgrades to Galleass (instead of Caravel). The Dromon has an attack strength of 10 (same as Trireme) but a lower defensive strength (8).

You can also train the Cataphract, which replaces the Horseman. The Cataphract has same hammer cost as the Horseman, but is stronger (15 instead of 12), benefits from defensive train (like melee units), and has a reduced penalty when attacking cities (25% instead of 33%). The Cataphract has one less movement point than the Horseman (3 instead of 4). The Cataphract upgrades to Knight (without any special abilities).

Spoiler map type and settings :

Standard size, standard speed, standard number of civs and CS. Map type is Terra Incognita with settings that make it very much like standard Continents. Map was not altered.

Spoiler hints about which AIs you might encounter :

Opponents are hand selected and are fit for the map type, most with watery UA or UU. None of the AI civs have any special faith generating UA/UB/UU.

Spoiler difficulty :

Very hard. Byzantium is a weaker civ, and the starting dirt is not great. Also, the achievements all either distract from a Domination VC or constrain typical Domination play. Good luck!

Spoiler starting location :

Designated Victory Condition: Domination, but you will have earned well deserved congratulations if you can win at all! All VC are enabled.

Spoiler achievements :

• Clear your starting continent with mostly† only the UU, 3 points.
• Each cap conquered before Compass, 3 points each. ‡
• Each cap conquered before Navigation, 2 points each. ‡
• Each cap conquered before Electronics, 1 point each. ‡*
• One point each for Reformation belief, completing Piety, and ending the game with your as World Religion in WC, 3 points available.
• One point for each rival Holy City converted at the end of the game, 4 points available.
• End the game with your religion (by city count) as the plurality (1 point) or majority (2 points).

†Starting warrior, Scouts, scarchers, CS gifts are all allowed. No turn limit, and all units (including UU) may be upgraded. You can train other units (e.g. a caravel), but for the achievement, they must not be used on your starting continent. You only need to kill off any neighboring AI civs, CS may be left in place. An AI settling on your continent after it is cleared does not spoil the achievement.
‡Stacks with the first achievement above. No constraints on training units.
*It is a continents map, so half the AI are out of reach before Astronomy.

Spoiler point breakdown on B/C/D :

Only one cap is feasible for (B) and two more for (C). Upper bound for achievement points available is: 3+3+4+4+3+4+2, 23 total.

Quick combat and movement are off (which is the default, turn them on if you like).
Game Version - 1.0.3.279
Downloadable Content includes: Wonders of the Ancient World DLC. Gods and Kings expansion, Brave New World Expansion. The map packs are intentionally excluded.

Before you download the map, please take a moment to speculate here in this thread on your initials thoughts plans for the game. Will you settle in place? What are your plans for founding? What are your plans for getting the most from the UU?

As it happens, the current GotM is also Byzantium. That map (King) is considerably easier than this one!

Spoiler links to previous games in CDG series :

CDG1: Persia, Oct 31st, 2015, domination, Pangea, hard, map by Consentient
CDG2: Assyria, Nov 15th, 2015, science, Pangea, medium, map by Consentient
CDG3: Ethiopia, Dec 2nd, 2015, culture, NQ Pangea, hard, map by Consentient
CDG4: Spain, Dec 17th, 2015, domination, NQ Pangea, medium, map by Consentient
CDG5: Indonesia, Jan 2nd, 2016, culture, NQ Continents, hard, map by Consentient
CDG6: Zulus, Jan 15th, 2016, domination, Oval, easy, map by Consentient
CDG7: Shoshone, Feb 2nd, 2016, culture, Oval, very easy, map Created by Enslingkorp
CDG8: Austria, Feb 15th, 2016, science, Pangea, very easy, map by IronfighterXXX
CDG9: Brazil, Feb 28th, 2016, culture, Pangea, medium, map by Blatc
CDG10: Denmark, March 14th, 2016, domination, Pangea, hard, map by Beetle
CDG11: Venice, April 1st, 2016, domination, Archipelago, very easy, map by Wild_Woojsha

 

[Shark Diver]

Given the religious achievements, I think I'll take the settler for a walk in the desert.....Jim Morrison style. Now I just have to find some peyote.

Good job on original achievements.

 

[donkeyfish]

Looks interesting - will try this one tomorrow.

Plan:
Move to the desert hill and hope for a fish. But I fear Venice ate all the fish in the last one.

Will probably end up picking 3 Liberty -> Piety and beeline Sailing -> Horseback.

 

[gobbledydook]

Spoiler :

There's literally nothing except incense until you get Optics. Seriously?

 

[donkeyfish]

Spoiler :

This didnt go well

Luckily, this series allows "cheating" - so I can try again.

Back to the drawing board - Need something clever against the Elephant carpet.

 

[sugerdady87]

Spoiler :

This didnt go well

Luckily, this series allows "cheating" - so I can try again.

Back to the drawing board - Need something clever against the Elephant carpet.

Spoiler :

I tried to rush Stonehenge and failed. Also thinking about just going straight down piety.

 

[Shark Diver]

Brutal start (that's not a good thing).

Spoiler :

Moved my settler inland to the mountain/river/hill. Looked to be a good setup for Petra. Declared war on Carthage early to prevent being forward settled (and to XP farm).

I beelined for Petra (only diversions were Writing and Mining), and settled on expo East. Problem is, this is bad terrain for gold generation and I went negative around t30. I met the only CS around which gave me a few turns of not losing science, and I finally got to a couple of barb camps, but I was still negative (-8 at one point) almost every turn. I gave Carthage peace just so I could send a Caravan to her and now she'll be able to sail a settler up my way and forward settle me. It seems that the only nearby CS is just out of Caravan reach. AND I"M STILL NEGATIVE GPT!!!

There are no horse resources, ergo forget about Cataphracts (which would have been a nice counter to those funky pachyderms, and there are almost no GPT tiles where city placement makes sense. There is only 1 CS and only 1 trading partner......ok, England sailed over and said hello recently but I've got nothing to trade her. I'm at t90ish and still had 16 turns before researching Currency when Petra was built. This is awful. I can always build Petra before t80 and here even beelining I couldn't get to the tech even close to in time.

Perhaps I could have settled somewhere else and this problem would have been mitigated. The obvious choice for 2nd city placement is also a good Petra spot, but that should require using the Liberty Petra gambit and that kind of makes it tougher to complete the Piety tree.

It's a good attempt at a map, but the resource placement and lack of trading partners really makes early economy tough.

I'll probably do a restart and try a different approach (which sucks because I had a great religion going with DF, Pagodas, Monasteries, Tithe).

 

[donkeyfish]

Yeah, this one is tricky.

Spoiler :

If there is any solace, I also had something like 4 beakers on t85

Will definitely scrap Piety next attempt, its just such a bad tree .

 

[Shark Diver]

Yeah, this one is tricky.

Spoiler :

If there is any solace, I also had something like 4 beakers on t85

Will definitely scrap Piety next attempt, its just such a bad tree .

Well.....

Spoiler :

Piety could work here if I wasn't beelining Petra. I'd have been able to get the gold from temples and that would have solved the income issue pretty quickly. Still, it comes pretty late even with a beeline so I'd still deal with some negative GPT. I could have also opened sailing and one cargo ship solves a lot, but I'd still be sacrificing Petra.

Also, none of the above options does anything to help out with the Dom VC or the achievements.

I think maybe the best way for me to restart would be too focus on an early naval approach. The first two civs I've met are also naval civs, so it could get very interesting. I just hate giving up that nice mountain capital site. Three options occur:

1. Settle in place and use the Incense to stave off GPT issues. No Petra with this option.

2. Settle on the West coast river. This would block some of the forward settling but would weaken religion and no Petra.

3. Take the settler East to the faith Mountain. I'd then get forward settled, but it would solve faith and GPT.

 

[gobbledydook]

Second try. SIP. Last religion gone T57. GG.

 

[sugerdady87]

Second try. SIP. Last religion gone T57. GG.

I got mine at turn 64 during the second try.

 

[donkeyfish]

I think I just missed a point here - is it allowed to take out continent with Frigates (or tanks ) as long as you build them as dromon (or cataphracts)?

 

[beetle]

Sorry the map is so tough! FWIW, I could not win it...

is it allowed to take out continent with Frigates (or tanks) as long as you build them as dromon (or cataphracts)?

Yes, absolutely!

• Clear your continent with mostly† only the UU, 3 points.
• Each cap conquered before Compass, 3 points each. ‡
• Each cap conquered before Navigation, 2 points each. ‡
• Each cap conquered before Electronics, 1 point each. ‡

†Starting warrior, Scouts, scarchers, CS gifts are all allowed. No turn limit, and all units (including UU) may be upgraded. You can train other units (e.g. a caravel), but for the achievement, they must not be used on your starting continent.
‡Stacks with the first achievement above. No constraints on training units.

For use outside of the continent you start on, you can build frigates and tanks (and everything else) from scratch, without sacrificing achievement points.

 

[gobbledydook]

Please beetle, when you next roll a map, at least make sure that there's enough strategics for the unique units...with the total of two horses anywhere on the continent that isn't right on top of Ms. Backstab, that just doesn't translate into a fun game. Especially when there already aren't enough luxuries to work with, and this is a weak civ.

 

[beetle]

Second try. SIP. Last religion gone T57. GG.

I would not have expected that. No AI civs with early faith generation. In my two plays I founded without much trouble.

Please beetle, when you next roll a map, at least make sure that there's enough strategics for the unique units...

Unlocking the UU was one of my criteria for the dirt. Sorry, I felt there were just barely enough. You should be able to trade for a couple more with the northern AI.

 

[Shark Diver]

Sorry the map is so tough! FWIW, I could not win it...

Beetle, please don't take criticism of the map personally. The initiative and effort of posting a map is very much appreciated. That goes for everyone who has posted maps in all of these series. Thanks.

My critique was meant to point out the unusual challenges this map provides. A challenge is a good thing, as this game can become a bit redundant (and sometimes easy).

 

[beetle]

If the map is no fun, it is no fun. I am trying another one, should have something up by the weekend.

 

[donkeyfish]

I´m having a second try, with somewhat more success(140t in). At least no naive Dromon-rush this time :

Spoiler :

3city NC at t75ish, settled coastal-hill 2 tiles south + horse and Uluru. Education at t119. So around 20t behind normal game.

Full tradition -> Rationalism. No crap piety-opener, save that for later. Not like its going to be a fast finish anyway

Just got Frigates, but will only take 2 caps I think. (maybe 3 if lucky)

Struggling with eco and science, but hoping I´ll finish the tree around t260-280 which should be enough to win at least. The AI is not super-fast at tech.

Hoping for 10 points, will be difficult to get more. Picked 2 founder-beliefs, to commit myself to religion-spread

The ss upload-function didn't work - I´ll add my screenshot later when it works again

 

[stormtrooper412]

It's ok to use IGE just enough to make the map manageable my adding and/or replacing certain tiles

Spoiler :

I think rushing Petra is a trap, it's a much safer bet to hit up Liberty to free Settler, beeline CBs and UUs, take out Dido, and then probably go Piety.

 

[Redaxe]

This one is certainly tough - I managed to clear the first capital but it took a long time - turn 141. I am badly behind in science and intrastructure though as you'll notice. And trade routes yes I really need to get onto those. Though I got a religion on turn 49 so I was happy with that I got all the beliefs I wanted; Church Property, Pagoda, Monastery, Religious Centre, Itinerant Preachers... Plus the Great Mosque was up for grabs - I must have been the only one who opened Piety so that is essentially an extra enhancer belief.

They key gentlemen is to

Spoiler :

forward settle Dido's capital with some cities - you don't need to rush this, only when you're ready to attack. Try to make sure you can spare the happiness...

Settle around the Peninsula's around her capital to the SouthWest. Put 2-3 Dromons around there on point and maybe a scout>Archer. Once you DoW on Carthage they'll send all their units at this expo close to their capital. This is simply a diversion... With any luck a few dromons will incinerate their army and make it easier for your main attack.

If you plan it right that will draw their army away from your offensive army which will attack from the North. Dromons are cheap by the late classical era so spam them out.

If you look where Ohrid is placed relative to their capital you will see what I mean. Remember folks that Byzantium is the only civ that has an early ranged naval unit that is more powerful than a composite bowman - you have to find a way to leverage that advantage. By the time I took her 2 Northern expo's I had Galleas's and now a few ships with a range 3 promotion.

Spoiler :