Taku-Go-War

Settling in place on the Gems gives one a 2/1/2 City (that has access to two 5/0/1 Floodplain Grass, before improvement), which isn't so bad (it's actually quite great). But moving to the right reveals Sheep in the new Fat Cross, yielding a 2/1/1 City with that much more food. I believe I will be Settling one right (or one east, if you prefer). It is unfortunate that my tests to determine City Yield revealed the Sheep. But I do not consider such things cheating... or cheating overly much.

Settings

Version Control
Civilization IV
Beyond the Sword 3.19
Unofficial Patch 1.70
Better BAT AI 2.01 [Build 42]
BUG Mod 4.5 [Build 2245]
BULL 1.6 [Build 220]
BULLAI [Build 117]

A shorter version of the above is to say I installed BAT AI v 2.1 on top of a standard Beyond the Sword installation Patched to 3.19.

I have taken to loading a fresh install of Civilization between games, lest a mod (or any of my XML modifications) contaminate the underlying code.


Game Options
Monarch Difficulty

No Barbarians
Aggressive AI
No Random Events
Permanent Alliances

All Victories


Tokugawa

• Aggressive/Protective
• Yields Highly Promoted Gunpowder Units
• Fishing/Wheel
• Means Pottery is a viable First Tech

Pre-Game Huddle
I believe War (All Out War) is the Definitive Strategy for Civilization IV. No other Strategy comes close. As such, I will build up my Homeland (whatever that means, it might mean several Islands worth); and then, go on the Offensive with the aim of Destroying my early Foes and taking over their lands, while forcing later Enemies to Capitulate.

Tech Wise, Pottery is an early no-brainer, to get those Grass Floodplains up and running. While later, Iron Working, Bureaucracy, Gunpowder, Industrialization, and Astronomy are obvious choices.

If I can, I will resist the urge to build any Wonders. Though, I want my Core Cities to be solid and well built out.

And that really is all there is to it. If available, I may grab a Mid to Late Game Religion. But I'm just as happy to Steal One.


Strategic Guidelines
Total War!
Eat Early!
Vassal Later!

I question whether there is anything else.

Don't Get Sidetracked!


Oh, right!

I should, also, try to remember to evaluate the Better BAT AI.

I felt that my opening play was rather crappy. And then, my start was isolated. So, I decided to reload. Who knows how many (hundreds of) regenerations this map lies down the line?

One thing I will note about this Map Script and/or The Better BAT AI, it's possible to Pop a Hut on the Roll (the Settler appears on a Hut, which is automatically Popped) and log entries remain throughout the Regeneration Sequence (which is how I discovered this quirk). It's hardly important. But it was interesting to note. Sadly, I did not take any screenshots of this phenomenon.

I lost heart in the previous game when I lost the race to The Pyramids. It's too big of a hit too early in the game to keep on trucking. Also, my start was isolated. Though, that did not bother me until I lost The Pyramids.

In rerolling, I started to look at the Map from inside of World Builder, thinking I might give myself choice of anywhere on the map. While doing this, I determined that this map is totally uneven, as isolated starts will be severely handicapped compared to those lucky enough to have two (or more) overlapping islands... you know, additional land that can be explored Pre-Optics and Settled Pre-Astronomy.

Anyway, I was opening this file in World Builder and discovered additional Resources available to the Capitol, which are hidden off-screen. In the end (and if one moves one square North East), there are two Elephants and two Floodplain Hills in the Fat Cross. It's good enough.

The most powerful Civilization will be the one with overlapping islands.

{Note: Once I knew this was a winning start, I averted my eyes and closed World Builder, so I do not know if the start is isolated or even in which Quadrant of the World it lays.}

Food is the most important resource on this map (period), as most everything else is Super Abundant. This really is a Map custom made for either Mining, Inc. or Creative Constructions, Inc..

It's questionable whether I will be going for The Pyramids, again. I, likely, cannot get both The Pyramids and The Great Lighthouse. I expect The Great Lighthouse to be most advantageous (as would playing Joao or Oranje) on this map, as it's very Archipelago in nature.

This should be good enough. As long as no AI Civ starts next to another one, I don't see how I can lose... barring player error.

The Great Lighthouse is key to this map. That and going slow. There is no rush (to either my play or my in-game expansion). I do not expect my opponents to prioritize either Optics or Astronomy. So, I have until T400 for Optics and T500 Astronomy... maybe another 50 Turns after that. I mean, I really had no competition in my previous play-throughs.

I restarted with a new Map because even after two reloads (on the previous Map), I was still not doing well in my War against Russia.

• Pikes are the counter to Elephants and Horsemen.
• If I am going to Eat a Civilization, I need as many Troops as they have.

But really, slow and steady wins the race says all there is to say about this map. There is no hurry. No hurry to Settle. No hurry to expand. No hurry to Attack. No hurry to do much of anything.

The game can wait.

I need to pace myself a lot better.


{Note: I lost, again. And this is will I will end this map.}

I could see playing with these Map Script Settings again. But Tako-Go-War is definitely not the Leader for an Isolated Start. And if I am changing the leader or rolling yet another map, I'm going to switch back to the BUG Mod. I like it better.

• Future Messages
• ALT+M
• In X Turns Do This.
• Custom Messaging System
  • Pop-Up at Start of Turn
  • End of Turn Indicator replaced by Message
• Focused Technology Bar
• Only the current ages are shown.
• But it doesn't automatically update (on reload) to show those that are in the queue.
• Still, I like the newfangled colors.
• Combat Odds Sucks
• I can't Hover the Mouse and Click Alt.
• It's annoying.
• And so far, the AI doesn't seem any better.
• If I didn't want to Win This Map, I'd hang this Mod up.
• The Combat Odds functionality sucks.
  • It just sucks.

The Messaging is nice. I will have to see if this is included in BUG. The Combat Odds were simply annoying and did not work right. While breaking the Technology Tree into Ages did nothing but force me to continually expand the view whenever I reloaded. And even if I win (which I did not), I reload dozens upon dozens of times each game.

The next item on my TODO List is to roll a new Map for my next game of CIV IV.

Popping endless Goodie Huts on a Map such of this is essentially unfair... or beyond what I'll call a challenge. I got several free Technologies (though, not necessarily the most expensive ones) by being the first to Discover Optics and then Exploring. Thus, if I were to replay the same Map, in the future I would disable Huts.

The lack of Resources was a challenge. And this is exactly the type of map where a Charismatic (+ Happy) or Expansive (+ Health) Leader would shine.