Scope of the Game:

• Civilization: Greece
• Difficulty: SID
• World size: Standard
• Landmass: Continents
• Geology: 60% Ocean, 3 Billion years
• Environment: Normal, Temperate
• Barbarians: Restless
• Rivals: 7 pre-selected
• Respawn: OFF
• Scientific Great Leaders: OFF
• Mobilisation: ON
• AI Agression: Normal
• Submissions due by January 10th, 2008. PLEASE NOTE THE DATE. Because this is a quarterly special game you get an extra 10 days to complete it.

ALL SPOILERS PROHIBITED: Do not post any messages or questions about this game in any forum until after about December 5, 2008. Please do not discuss any aspect of this game prior to that date, when an official spoiler thread will be opened for discussions. NEVER DISCUSS AN ACTIVE CONTEST IN ANY THREAD OTHER THAN THE CORRECT SPOILER THREADS!

NoAIPatrol Setting:

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the barb behavior in C3C and how the NoAIPatrol flag controls that behavior. For the COTM competition it is highly recommended that all players set the NoAIPatrol flag to 0 to permit fairly consistent barb behavior across all player's games. This is done by opening the "conquests.ini" file in your favorite editor, adding the line "NoAIPatrol=0" to it, and saving.

Special Notes for COTM55 To help you out against the AI, you will get a number of bonuses. 1.) There is a chokepoint connecting your territory to the mainland. On it is a fortress occupied by 5 immobile advanced defenders. These are Guerillas for Open and Conquest class, and modified (5,5,0) Riflemen with a (2,0,1) defensive shot for Predator class. This should hold off the AI until they get Galleys. Bonus: there is no unit support required for these units. 2.) You get a 2nd Settler to start with. Open and Conquest classes get a 2nd Worker as well. 3.) Some of the AI are at permanent locked warfare with each other. These are organized in pairs - CivA at war with CivB, while CivC is at war with CivD. The other AI are free agents, but at least there should be some slowing of the Tech race with the wars. Unless the wars are over early in which case, there might be 2 monster civs to compete with. 4.) Your Hoplite is given a defensive shot at (1,0,1). Probably best if it doesn't have to be used.

As always, have fun playing the COTM and we hope you join us in the postgame discussions!

You will have your choice of Playing COTM 55 in one of three skill levels that most closely matches your current abilities - Conquest Class, Open Class, or Predator Class.

Conquest-Class Game Details for Conquest 55

Players who choose to play in the Conquest class game will receive a set of bonuses designed to help them focus on key early strategic decisions that may help them to get more enjoyment out of the specific conditions of this game. The bonuses ARE NOT designed to guarantee you a win without requiring some good early decisions to be made and without asking you to manage your Civilization properly.

Players who might be interested in playing the conquest class game could be those players who might only feel comfortable playing at Warlord or Regent difficulty.

For the purposes of global ranking and comparison to all other COTM scores, the Conquest class games scores in the QSC and COTM results will be weighted downward with an 85% multilpier to factor out the value of the additional starting bonuses.

Please Note - Players using the Conquest Save will NOT be Eligible for any Awards or Medals

Conquest Class Starting Bonuses:
Conquest class players will begin the game with following unit and game feature bonuses:

• Bonus Units: You start with 2 Bonus Hoplites, one with each Settler
• More Bonus Units: You start with an extra Settler and Worker
• Bonus Techs: Your people also know Pottery AND Masonry
• Bonus Treasury: You start with an extra 100 Gold.
• Bonus Defenders: You start with 5 immobile advanced defenders (Guerillas) fortified in a fortress at the chokepoint.

Click on the image below to download the Conquest-class start save file.

Open Class Game Details for Conquest 55

Players who choose to play in the Open Class game receive no bonuses compared to a game that would be normally be played on Monarch level.

For the purposes of global ranking and comparison to all other GOTM scores, Open class game scores will be ranked according to the Jason score which balances speed and scoring skills for a combined "Best Overall game" rating.

Open Class Starting Bonuses:

• Bonus Units: You start with an extra Settler and Worker
• Bonus Defenders: You start with 5 immobile advanced defenders (Guerillas) fortified in a fortress at the chokepoint.

Click on the image below to download the Open-Class start save file.

Predator Class Game Details for Conquest 55

Players who choose to play in the Predator class game must overcome an extra set of obstacles built into their game to provide an extra level of challenge. The intent of these changes is to raise the difficulty without altering strategic play progress from that which you would see for comparison in the conquest class and open class games.

Players who might be interested in playing the Predator class game could be those players who have participated in the Elite or Leader divisions of the Medal Play Series or players who just want an extra level of excitement or challenge.

For the purposes of global ranking and comparison to all other GOTM scores, the Predator class game scores in the QSC and GOTM results do not receive any compensating scoring bonus for the added elements of challenge.

Predator Class Equalizing Obstacles:
The game features for Predator Class Games have been raised to provide the following obstacles:

• Loss of Tech: You do not know BronzeWorking
• Bonus Unit: You get a bonus Settler, but the Worker has died of malaria
• Bonus Defenders: Your 5 immobile advanced defenders are not as well trained, and are (5,5,0) Riflemen with a (2,0,1) defensive shot

Click on the image below to download the Predator-Class start save file.