Whats your plan?

[mikels]

Hey there,
While I'm not particularly new to Civ2 i am new to this Game of the Month Concept. I just finished my first GOTM and, according to the advice on the GOTM home attempted to finish the game as soon as possible. This meant forgoing any sewersystems and the like in the quest for more units. Although i was not particularly successful at this and probably would not have a good score anyway, i had a quick look at some of the scores in the archive or results and some of the scores are so big that i was just wondering whether trying to finish off the game quickly really is the best way to go, or is it better to build 4000 cities and painstakingly farmland them allto improve your score?


Anyways looking forward to GOTM VI!

 

[shadowdale]

Well actually there is no best way to play the GotM - you get awarded if you finish the game quickly, but no matter how early you finish your GotM score is still very depended on how many point you got in the game!!!

A good thing for you to try is to download matrix excel file and check how you GotM score grows or declines! As a rule, you continue to play the game as long as your game score grows by more than one % per turn!

But of cause there are many ways to play the GotM - you can also go for the highest score or the fastest finish. It's all a matter of style and what goal you play to reach!!

Normally I play long games where I try to build my score up and still try to finish no later than 1800AD - but this month I tried to conquer the world ASAP and then build my score for some 20-30 turns before I took the last city - whether or not this tactic is a good one, remains to be seen.



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We are species 8472 - assimilation attempts are futile - the weak shall perish

No wait we are species 5618 and we got beer...... don't harm us!!!!!!

 

[starlifter]

Shadowdale,

I took a look at one of your games (GOTM 4), and in 1 AD, you seem able to get off to the best starts of anyone I've personally seen. I can see my own game needs some tweaking in the BC years! It seems my own method of mid to late game play tends to bury even yours, but if I were able to achieve your game state in the early years, then continue in later years, the results would be astounding in the GOTM formula!

I'm already done with GOTM 5, and now I've been playing GOTM 4 for reference. I'm currently in the slow, dull phase of buildup with a couple pet cities in GOTM 4, but my civ in 1000 AD was roughly where yours was in 1 AD in terms of population. My Civ II score will ultimately bury yours from that game, but the GOTM score may not because you finished about 100 years before mine is projected to complete (about 1885 is when I'll probably decide to land my SS, based on current growth projections).

So I agree with those that have said playing style is the dominate GOTM variable. The normalizing equation is a very good thing for the GOTM scores, IMHO.

However, the advantage is still slightly in the court of those that can balloon a civ, esp. by the 1700s or 1800s. LOL, and this means there is still a big element of tedium during the endgame, esp. with larger maps.