I'm player 3 which is a slight disadvantage. Everyone gets as many turns but the last player will always be half a turn behind the other players for all the competitive aspects like colonies events or military as well as for the end of age loss of yellow tokens. To compensate for that you get an extra civil actions per position in the first round and you can safely fire your military the last round if you want. Playing from this position makes me less likely to go for military to destroy the other players and more likely to try to build infrastructure and culture myself and hope to have just enough military to defend it.
Turn 1
CH chose Caesar which is a very weak leader IMO, you basically need to get something out of early military to benefit from him. So I will expect military pressure. Rho chose the obvious engineering genius, 2 resources is a lot early game and he is in a good position to get wonders and leaders next round.
For my round I see two basic choices: 1) take 3 yellow cards and hope to get maybe Aristotle or maybe homer 2) take 1 yellow card and a leader for 2 actions. I would only pick pyramids or Aristotle for 3 as I consider them a level above the other cards. Option 1 has a big upside but an even worse downside. I could easily end up without a leader, and that difference is even bigger than the difference between Aristotle and the others. Better to to take the safe play. That also leaves me with more actions for next turn, I can draft a nice card 2 actions without problem.
The choice of yellow card is obvious as you need actions, resources and science the most. Frugality is less important and cultural heritage cost an extra action while rich land is perfect as I will build a bronze mine next turn. You almost always open the game with a bronze mine to increase your production from 2 to 3. The only other options are a philosophy if you picked an urban growth the first turn and perhaps saving for pyramids if you have an engineering genius.
The choice of leaders is trickier. Alexander gives me 1 yellow token which is great long term, it basically means I will have one more avialiable worker ro place where I want later in the game. The 1 strength per unit is soo hard to use as you probably need to build two more units and to draw an attack to really benefit. Unless you draw an attack in thw first draw you are probably better of by killing him at the first possibility to avoid consumtion longer. His strength might be a useful defense against ceaser but honestly I'm not that scared.
Hammurabi gives me one more civil actions each turn and is two actions cheaper to transition from than Alexander. Extra actions are really valuable early, each one should be worth 1-2 resources from yellow cards or allow you to get the crucial technologies. There is diminising returns as the number of cheap yellow cards is limited, further so if the other players have many actions. He is the leader to start snowballing your civ early. Pyramids is not in play yet which increases his value by a fair bit.
Play is:
Draw Hammurabi
Draw Rich land
Turn 1
CH chose Caesar which is a very weak leader IMO, you basically need to get something out of early military to benefit from him. So I will expect military pressure. Rho chose the obvious engineering genius, 2 resources is a lot early game and he is in a good position to get wonders and leaders next round.
For my round I see two basic choices: 1) take 3 yellow cards and hope to get maybe Aristotle or maybe homer 2) take 1 yellow card and a leader for 2 actions. I would only pick pyramids or Aristotle for 3 as I consider them a level above the other cards. Option 1 has a big upside but an even worse downside. I could easily end up without a leader, and that difference is even bigger than the difference between Aristotle and the others. Better to to take the safe play. That also leaves me with more actions for next turn, I can draft a nice card 2 actions without problem.
The choice of yellow card is obvious as you need actions, resources and science the most. Frugality is less important and cultural heritage cost an extra action while rich land is perfect as I will build a bronze mine next turn. You almost always open the game with a bronze mine to increase your production from 2 to 3. The only other options are a philosophy if you picked an urban growth the first turn and perhaps saving for pyramids if you have an engineering genius.
The choice of leaders is trickier. Alexander gives me 1 yellow token which is great long term, it basically means I will have one more avialiable worker ro place where I want later in the game. The 1 strength per unit is soo hard to use as you probably need to build two more units and to draw an attack to really benefit. Unless you draw an attack in thw first draw you are probably better of by killing him at the first possibility to avoid consumtion longer. His strength might be a useful defense against ceaser but honestly I'm not that scared.
Hammurabi gives me one more civil actions each turn and is two actions cheaper to transition from than Alexander. Extra actions are really valuable early, each one should be worth 1-2 resources from yellow cards or allow you to get the crucial technologies. There is diminising returns as the number of cheap yellow cards is limited, further so if the other players have many actions. He is the leader to start snowballing your civ early. Pyramids is not in play yet which increases his value by a fair bit.
Play is:
Draw Hammurabi
Draw Rich land
My singleplayer balance mod of BTS: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3u6g4b2nfa74qhm...%20mod.odt?
