This will be a hard game to win. But the point is to win, right?
... and also have fun. Actually those come together often, but not always.
This is going to be very interesting, and also different game to the previous games I have played. With 8 players I simply can't attack my opponent if I'm not sure I am going to gain something. No reason to raze cities of my opponents when it only gives the others help as well. I have to be more patient. *cough* the last PBEM *cough*. I must admit I'm not very good at that, when I get some sort of edge over my opponents (be it technological or power), I often put it in action very quickly - and it has turned into World War between me and my opponents a couple of times. This has worked sometimes in my games but I don't think that it will work here.
Smaller map size probably means earlier conflicts... but 8 players means a bit longer game. Need to have some sort of strenght & flexibility in the early game but not completely bummer in the later game.
One civ I've had in my mind for a long time, and one that I have wanted to play with, is Malakim. Varn is actually very good leader (SPI/CRE/ADA). CRE saves early hammers (and also gives defense bonus to my cities!), but then later it can be switched to something more useful. They do well with any religions due to their WS (requires Priesthood) and can quickly get bunch of 2 movers out. Also SPI is a trait I have undervalued in all my games and I'd really like to play with it (and also learn how to use it to the max). It pairs well with Priests spamming. Just a quick early thought.
Your starting settler has the standard FFH2 bonus promo, so choose your capital wisely. I also "squared" it's initial view range to keep that the same for all players.
The map was created according to settings requested in the thread, but as for what that ends up meaning exactly... you'll have to discover for yourself.
Q wanted one week to make picks, so feel free to take up till then. However, once all 8 players have their picks posted, I will lock them in that instant.
Just one question, is that starting tile forested grass hill? It looks like a forest but just to make sure because I can't quite see the hammers whether it is 1 or 2.
This is a tough one to decide where to settle. Almost definitely something else than SIP but need to sim out the possibilities.
Some quick thoughts:
A) One very good alternative is that plainhill 2E of the wet Corn + weak plain Rice and Oasis + 2 Calendar resources (+1 happy). Makes early teching fast and also decent considering food. Poor hammerwise but that's not an issue. Also should give the health bonus to city from being next to freshwater (unsure if it works on a hill, hope so).
B) Could also settle 1N of the plainhill for loss of Oasis/Incense but gaining wet plain Wheat (5f1c after Calendar) + Reagents.
C) Could also settle closer to gold for very good cities with tons of FPs but those are slower to start teching. In the early game teching quickly is very important, that's why settling this way would make me fall behind in tech compared to A). If I were to grab Malakim going this way would be pretty awesome though. Like consider the tile 1NW of the Clam, at size 5 working 4 FPs + Oasis gives me 11 commerce, add to that 8c from the palace + 1c from the city square for total of 20 commerce. That's very good when it'd also produce 25 food - 10 food eaten by populatin for 15 food/turn. Add to that the hammers from palace + city square for total of 17 foodhammers per turn. That's 3 turn workers and 9 turn settlers. Basically getting decent commerce and foodhammers at the same time, which is hard to get otherwise usually so early.
All in all, those floodplains + Oasis indeed look very tasty for Malakim.
(August 13th, 2016, 16:27)Aurorarcher Wrote: Thanks a lot for quick work, Joey!
Just one question, is that starting tile forested grass hill? It looks like a forest but just to make sure because I can't quite see the hammers whether it is 1 or 2.
You currently have a random leader set, but it is very easy to change:
1.) Put the save in your saves/Worldbuilder directory
2.) Open Windows Explorer, and go to your saves/Worldbuilder directory. Sort by date modified.
3.) Open Notepad (or your favorite text editor).
4.) Open EITB
5.) Go to Single Player -> Custom Game. Set number of players to 2, the difficulty to emperor, and select the leader you want. Other settings will not matter.
6.) Once the game loads, open the worldbuilder. Click on save, and choose a name like "eitb_simset.CivBeyondSwordWBSave" or whatever. Don't close the worldbuilder.
7.) Go back to windows explorer. Drag eitb_simset.CivBeyondSwordWBSave into notepad.
8.) Press Ctrl-F, and search for "BeginPlayer" (with no quotes). Copy from BeginPlayer to EndPlayer, like this.
9.) Now drag your sim file into notepad. Again find BeginPlayer and select to EndPlayer. This time, paste and save.
10.) Going back to the worldbuilder, select Load and choose your sim file.
11.) Once the game loads, go into the worldbuilder and set the correct starting tech for your civ. Alternatively, you can set it in notepad by doing a similar procedure as above but with BeginTeam/EndTeam.
So I got my first pick, Malakim . So no need to alter my plans that much. Looking forward to use SPI to max, need to consider my 2nd trait as I'll switch away from CRE on T71 (1st switch, 2nd will never come). Definitely need to get as many cities as I can with CRE. Turn is still on it's way but I've simmed the start such that settling on that desert hill 2SE from the starting tile. My 2nd city should be settled around T35. I will also get a lot of beakers from the FPs, should be a tech leader early on (untill my opponents hook up their Calendar resources, assuming the starts are close to mirrored).
Teching is pretty straightforward: Agri -> Calendar -> Exploration -> Crafting -> Mining. I can almost get all of that in 35 turns which is pretty good, I got about 600 beakers in my SIMs IIRC.
Same with early unit building: Worker -> Warrior(s) till size 3 -> then 2nd worker because I start to work unimproved tiles quickly -> build warrior & grow to size 5 -> start settler. I might try to SIM whether it's better to grow to size 5 first before 2nd worker, or to just get settler out first. If I recall my sims correctly it felt better to get 2nd worker out earlier due to super fast growing with tons of food and slower improving of FPs. It makes improving 2nd city also a lot quicker. No need to hurry 2nd city if it'll work unimproved tiles too much.
2nd city will go to that PH grabbing Corn, Silk and Incense. Next cities should go close to Dyes and Wheat/Deer but that's not something I need to think just yet.
I might try to grab early religion too, in a 8 player game shrines might actually be worth it. OO is very tempting because I believe Cultists will be pretty good in this map. I think I can beat Lanun to OO, but it won't be easy if Dave beelines it by skipping Crafting/Mining for example. I might need to skip those too if I want to be sure I'll get the holy city. Need to track Dave's teching so I can guess what his plans are. Luckily his start, like first 15-20 turns, should be slow but it will explode once he gets Ports up.
