Spoiler for Igloodude's Zenspider 8-player pitboss

[IglooDude]

If you've joined the 8-player pitboss game that just started June 10 in this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=173355 please go away.

And with that out of the way... 8 players, no AIs, apparently most are at about my level in SP and MP. Standard-sized, normal rate Terra map, barbs on. I'm Cyrus, taking over for an AI four turns into the game.

I'll follow up this post (and my other spoiler) with a screenshot this afternoon, but in the meantime:

I've just discovered fishing. My capital is on a peninsula with 1 cow and 3 forest/grassland squares, 4 clams, and the rest coastwater. I'm at size 1, will be size 2 in 2 turns. My scout apparently popped a warrior from a village. I've got Greece's borders butting up against mine across the water to the southwest, and my scout just saw Rome's borders 6-8 squares to my west. Lots of jungle to the north, and elephants within range of where I could put a second city. I'm figuring on building a quick fishing boat, then a worker once my size-2 city can build it faster.

But as for foreign relations... uhoh. Greeks' UU trumps mine, and Rome's UU trumps whatever I can build soon. The key is, what do I research next? AH gets me a cow improvement and horses, but I should start on the path to axemen ASAP.

[BCLG100]

the praets will be a time coming, whoever has rome will wait till he has them before attacking so it'll be awhile before he attacks, for the initial period the greeks will be your main worry-however the phalanx is mainly seen as a defensive unit and is not often used to attack. Therefore my advice would be to get AH find some horses and if possible rush rome before he can build up a praet army. Start on bronze after AH.

[IglooDude]

Good thoughts, thanks. With any luck I'll find someone else that I can doubleteam Rome with (I'd be too insecure about Greece being at my back to truly count on them) since the Praetorians are such a high and obvious threat to all his neighbors.

[BCLG100]

Praets can be taken down, axes for a start have +50% vs melee, so you could back up your immortals with axes, especially as initially the cities wont have much of a defensive bonus, i'd try and do a bit of scouting of the roman area first, depending on who Greece is it could be a very good ally for the rest of the time. Just check they dont have any out of game friendship ties with Rome

[IglooDude]

Need wheels to get immortals, too, after AH.

fishing -> AH -> mining -> BW -> wheels.
40 100 50 120 60 = 370 beakers
vs BW -> IW for Caesar.
120 200 = 320 beakers

You can see why I'm bummed...

I think one adjustment I have to make is going mining/BW before AH - I need to get a settler dropped on the nearest bronze ASAP.

[BCLG100]

thing is though, newbie players are sometimes put off by techs that will take longer than others. praets also take longer to build and if your hut hunting then theres a fairly good chance you might get wheel from a hut as its a small tech.

[IglooDude]

Here's the pic:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/igloodude/200661423407_Zenspider3720BC.JPG
119.97KB

The guy playing Caesar has commented in the CFC thread that he's played a few MPs before, so I suspect he's experienced enough to know to spool up Praets and point them at neighbors ASAP.

[BCLG100]

hmm well that sucks, you wont be getting any resource in your capital, it may be worth snatching up archery if you cant see any copper. However if you progress in your game them crabs could really help (cyrus philo? could be getting a lot of GL's if he is)

[IglooDude]

They're clams - what do you think, this is the OT game or something? [lol] But yeah, if I can survive early on, my capital is going to be frikkin rich.

And Cyrus is expansive/creative, so I'm going to be healthy and cultural, but no GP bonus. [ponder]

[BCLG100]

oooooooooooooo

just noticed something-look what you have!!! Nellys!!!! if you cant find bronze and you've got a settler out then be heading right for that ivory, elephants can be killers!

[IglooDude]

That's what my warrior is going to go check out, I don't have any settlers up yet, won't start one until I pop to size 2 next turn. :)

[BCLG100]

thing about settler at size 2 is while you'll get that second city up nice an early-itll take longer than if you build at 3, you'll have less research for the time being, you'll also be weaker. You wont need a worker for awhile as theres nothing you can really do but you might conisder waiting till pop 3 until you build a settler.

After hitting pop 2 you could also consider working one of the land tiles for better production.

[IglooDude]

No updates, I've played the same turn three times so far, the pitboss hoster seems to be having technical issues...

[IglooDude]

And, a couple turns later, THE technical issue - zenspiderz (the pitboss hoster) screwed up his Civ4 game trying to add a mod, and somehow ended up uninstalling the game and deleting the pitboss saves. So, this game is closed.

I suspect that he simply lost interest, as one player pulled out of the game, he'd just asked another player if he was still in after two skipped turns, and he may have gotten little response on a "is everyone up for a hurry session still?" question recently. :-(

It would have been a nice challenge, but oh well.

[BCLG100]

well that sucks, however if your interested in a cdz pitboss game and can host it you'll find some very willing if a bit too good participants-just so long as kemal isnt allowed to play we've all got a chance :)

[IglooDude]

Yeah, that's kinda what I'm afraid of - at least in Civivor (and in this game) I'm at least in the same league as everyone else. [medic]

This 8-player one looks like it's going to restart, and I'm in another one (another 24-hr-turn 18-player) that should start up in a few days. Daily turns is definitely my preferred style.

[BCLG100]

but then the drawback is that you can get a load of people you've never spoken with before and the game ends up a bit like this one.

though good news it may start again, how if he didnt have the save?

[IglooDude]

And never speak to during - I had contact with 3 civs, and the diplo contact with any of them wasn't more than "alliance? ummm... maybe later" and zero out-of-game chatter. [ponder]

Restart, not a reload - starting from scratch, apparently same participants. Based on my not-great start previously, and the AI starting my first half-dozen turns anyway, I won't mind a restart.

[Whomp]

I think a CDZ pitboss game would be awesome and I'd do another in a minute.

[BCLG100]

matrix was looking into it wasnt he? think it didnt happen cos he couldnt get it working or something.

[Robboo]

i'd be up for one. Igloo...if that game needs another player let me know. Also if you need a sub let me know.

[IglooDude]

I've just signed up for another 24hrturn 18-player pitboss game yesterday afternoon [blush] but I guess a 4th game wouldn't matter at that point.

I'll ask Matrix where he got with it, but I thought DaveShack was already running what is essentially a CDZ 18-player pitboss game that Whomp and BCLG at least are in?

And Robboo (and anyone else), the signup for the (other) 18-player is in this thread, two slots left: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4210401#post4210401

The 8-player one looks iffy as to whether it'll even restart again now.

[BCLG100]

I'd be wary of rejoining that game igloo-seems like you could end up putting a lot of time and effort in to a game that will never really happen :)

Well i guess it is sort of- however i think there are a few players here who would join in with a CDZ pitboss game.

[IglooDude]

Yeah, the guy running the pitboss server doesn't seem to have his act together all that much.

Anyway, I've just found an unused IP address, and I've got a celeron 500 with 256mb of RAM lying around not doing anything besides folding@home, so maybe we can get a CDZ pitboss game going.

[Whomp]

That would be cool. Should we post it?

[IglooDude]

quote:Originally posted by Whomp

That would be cool. Should we post it?


Yeah, but I'm busy enough lately to not want to actually run the game, just provide/administer the pitboss server - and besides I probably have less multiplayer experience than anyone else in CDZ. Think it's reasonable to ask someone else to actually coordinate it from a game standpoint?

[BCLG100]

I started a thread about it here igloo-

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3674
thats if i got your meaning right :)

[IglooDude]

Looks like you got my meaning right. [cool]

I should be able to get the pitboss server going tomorrow, I'll PM you the connect details when I do.

You think it's safe to assume that everyone already is able to connect to a pitboss machine without their firewall getting in the way?

[BCLG100]

think so. ill put a note in about it.