It's now already in the past, but here are quick comments about our initial combo: Lincoln (PHI/CHA) of Mali.
I very much agree with your previous comments Harry. The strongest way to abuse PHI is of course with Pyramids play, which is as you said very risky and main turn-off for me. Moreover even though PHI is a solid economic trait without mids, in a water-heavy map I would always prefer FIN or ORG.
I actually liked CHA as a supporting trait quite much, +2
is always useful. I also think that CHA can be used as a expansive trait if you consider it as a way to balance stacked whip unhappiness. But with nerfed slavery it's in this aspect also nerfed a bit. (It's also useful when you whip only littly as cities grow possibly faster towards happy cap)
Mali was a solid civ, with nice starting techs and an UU that is hopefully useless, but potentially saves your life even before a war is initiated. Skirmisher choke would have been a solid option, if we had ended up in a continent with just one enemy. However, Mint was pretty insignificant and there were no synergies between our traits and civ.
Anyways, we could surely have built a solid economy by growing our cities to vertically, then working specialists and bulbing our way through the tech tree. I guess the main turn-off for me was that I did not really feel like playing too "great person"-focused game..
Now with Montezuma (AGG/SPI) of Babylon I have mixed feelings.
SPI is definitely useful and AGG is also OK thanks to improved barracks. Unfortunately we still miss a real economic trait (FIN/ORG) and don't really have much to speed up our expansion. Babylon has great starting techs, but is otherwise a pretty empty civ. No synergies.
I'm still kind of dreaming of Wang Kon of Inca or something similar, but I don't know if we want to gamble with a new re-roll. If we get unlucky we might end up e.g with CRE/AGG Inca or something as anti-synergetic. With this "pick" I think we have below average or average pairing, which needs big moves to remain relevant in the end-game, but thanks to unbalanced setup and players we might get our chances.
What are your thoughts?
I very much agree with your previous comments Harry. The strongest way to abuse PHI is of course with Pyramids play, which is as you said very risky and main turn-off for me. Moreover even though PHI is a solid economic trait without mids, in a water-heavy map I would always prefer FIN or ORG.
I actually liked CHA as a supporting trait quite much, +2
is always useful. I also think that CHA can be used as a expansive trait if you consider it as a way to balance stacked whip unhappiness. But with nerfed slavery it's in this aspect also nerfed a bit. (It's also useful when you whip only littly as cities grow possibly faster towards happy cap)Mali was a solid civ, with nice starting techs and an UU that is hopefully useless, but potentially saves your life even before a war is initiated. Skirmisher choke would have been a solid option, if we had ended up in a continent with just one enemy. However, Mint was pretty insignificant and there were no synergies between our traits and civ.
Anyways, we could surely have built a solid economy by growing our cities to vertically, then working specialists and bulbing our way through the tech tree. I guess the main turn-off for me was that I did not really feel like playing too "great person"-focused game..
Now with Montezuma (AGG/SPI) of Babylon I have mixed feelings.
SPI is definitely useful and AGG is also OK thanks to improved barracks. Unfortunately we still miss a real economic trait (FIN/ORG) and don't really have much to speed up our expansion. Babylon has great starting techs, but is otherwise a pretty empty civ. No synergies.
I'm still kind of dreaming of Wang Kon of Inca or something similar, but I don't know if we want to gamble with a new re-roll. If we get unlucky we might end up e.g with CRE/AGG Inca or something as anti-synergetic. With this "pick" I think we have below average or average pairing, which needs big moves to remain relevant in the end-game, but thanks to unbalanced setup and players we might get our chances.
What are your thoughts?