Suppose I should stop putting off the last one of these
Commodore is...
![[Image: pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20cover.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137965916/pbem64/pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20cover.jpg)
Genghis (Aggressive, Imperialistic)
of China (Agriculture, Mining, Pavilion, Cho-Ko-Nu)
Leader Ranking:
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Civ Ranking:
hammer
hammer
Synergy Ranking:
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I kind of feel like I should give this max rating in Synergy not because the traits go well with the civilization, but because the traits go well with the person playing them. If ever I was to pick two traits to describe a player, Aggressive and Imperialistic would be the first two that come to mind for Commodore. Hell, if I were to pick two words to describe the man I might still pick those two words.
Aggressive is every bit as good for fighting wars as it was before, and now has added bonus of decreasing city maintenance costs by 25%. It turns out this isn't quite as strong a boon as the 25% reduction Org gives to civic costs, but it does give Agg a bit of an economic edge. Any military advantage in the hands of Commodore is something to keep an eye on, and Aggressive means it would be foolhardy to try and tangle with him early in the game before we're prepared. (Oh wait, that's what we're doing?)
At the same time, Imperialistic does about the same thing as Aggressive but in reverse. It's main benefit is the +60% hammer boost to settler production, something we've already seen Commodore take a shine to with his game-leading 5 cities. Imp gives a minor but noticeable enhancement to warfare by increasing Great General production. So with this pairing you really can go in either direction: use Imperialistic to spam cities and take advantage of the cheaper maintenance costs, or use Aggressive to fund early war and have Imperialistic take the benefit in added Great Generals. Both ways love having lots of production, but hey - we're playing RtR which has brought the importance of having strong production back to relevancy (or was that the RB meta moving past cottage-uber-alls?) by decreasing whip efficiency and increasing the power of workshops.
The only pitfall here is expanding too rapidly, past the capacity of your cottages to fund the new cities. Aggressive is nice, but it isn't a license to spam cities, and it is quite possible if Commodore continues at the rate he has been we could see his economy falter too much for him to recover. Having 30% more cities than your opponents in the middle ages is great. Losing a third of your empire to a knight rush when you're still teching Feudalism is less so. There may be a hint of that already - Commodore is working a gem mine and still his GNP is considerably less than ours. I know we have religion inflating that a bit, but it's still pretty noticable in the tech count. Still, once Commodore gets to Currency his research problems should largely be solved, and when he gets to Caste & Metal Casting he could potentially have the best economy in the game. After PB18 I'm pretty certain that cottages should only be used at a minimum - gone are the days of cottage spam, simply because you cannot build the defenders needed to hold off workshop-economy based armies.
And then we get to China, with arguably the best starting techs in the game (RtR Korea says hi), and a very above-average medieval era UU. China works with the production needs of Aggressive and Imperialistic because it allows your workers to start mining hills and chopping trees sooner than other people - you're usually just one tech away. The Chinese UU is fantastic on defense, has the niche use of being the only sea bombard to work in the game. It has a forgettable UB in the Pavilion (PB6 says hi) but who cares? It's China.
Starting Ranking:
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Everything I've talked about already points to a strong start for China. Considering the starting tiles, the only tech out of the ordinary that Commodore would need to grab is Fishing, but after that a quick Bronze Working and then Pottery and he can go any direction he wants. We've already seen him go for the early land-grab. Although I think his early cities were not the best choices (better would have been to grab the food-rich sites up north and then attempt to plant front-line cities), he still has the best starting techs and traits for playing the opening out of any player.
Recommended Beer Pairing:
![[Image: pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20beer.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137965916/pbem64/pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20beer.jpg)
Total Domination IPA by Ninkasi
Commodore is...
![[Image: pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20cover.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137965916/pbem64/pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20cover.jpg)
Genghis (Aggressive, Imperialistic)
of China (Agriculture, Mining, Pavilion, Cho-Ko-Nu)
Leader Ranking:


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Civ Ranking:

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Synergy Ranking:
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
I kind of feel like I should give this max rating in Synergy not because the traits go well with the civilization, but because the traits go well with the person playing them. If ever I was to pick two traits to describe a player, Aggressive and Imperialistic would be the first two that come to mind for Commodore. Hell, if I were to pick two words to describe the man I might still pick those two words.
Aggressive is every bit as good for fighting wars as it was before, and now has added bonus of decreasing city maintenance costs by 25%. It turns out this isn't quite as strong a boon as the 25% reduction Org gives to civic costs, but it does give Agg a bit of an economic edge. Any military advantage in the hands of Commodore is something to keep an eye on, and Aggressive means it would be foolhardy to try and tangle with him early in the game before we're prepared. (Oh wait, that's what we're doing?)
At the same time, Imperialistic does about the same thing as Aggressive but in reverse. It's main benefit is the +60% hammer boost to settler production, something we've already seen Commodore take a shine to with his game-leading 5 cities. Imp gives a minor but noticeable enhancement to warfare by increasing Great General production. So with this pairing you really can go in either direction: use Imperialistic to spam cities and take advantage of the cheaper maintenance costs, or use Aggressive to fund early war and have Imperialistic take the benefit in added Great Generals. Both ways love having lots of production, but hey - we're playing RtR which has brought the importance of having strong production back to relevancy (or was that the RB meta moving past cottage-uber-alls?) by decreasing whip efficiency and increasing the power of workshops.
The only pitfall here is expanding too rapidly, past the capacity of your cottages to fund the new cities. Aggressive is nice, but it isn't a license to spam cities, and it is quite possible if Commodore continues at the rate he has been we could see his economy falter too much for him to recover. Having 30% more cities than your opponents in the middle ages is great. Losing a third of your empire to a knight rush when you're still teching Feudalism is less so. There may be a hint of that already - Commodore is working a gem mine and still his GNP is considerably less than ours. I know we have religion inflating that a bit, but it's still pretty noticable in the tech count. Still, once Commodore gets to Currency his research problems should largely be solved, and when he gets to Caste & Metal Casting he could potentially have the best economy in the game. After PB18 I'm pretty certain that cottages should only be used at a minimum - gone are the days of cottage spam, simply because you cannot build the defenders needed to hold off workshop-economy based armies.
And then we get to China, with arguably the best starting techs in the game (RtR Korea says hi), and a very above-average medieval era UU. China works with the production needs of Aggressive and Imperialistic because it allows your workers to start mining hills and chopping trees sooner than other people - you're usually just one tech away. The Chinese UU is fantastic on defense, has the niche use of being the only sea bombard to work in the game. It has a forgettable UB in the Pavilion (PB6 says hi) but who cares? It's China.
Starting Ranking:

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Everything I've talked about already points to a strong start for China. Considering the starting tiles, the only tech out of the ordinary that Commodore would need to grab is Fishing, but after that a quick Bronze Working and then Pottery and he can go any direction he wants. We've already seen him go for the early land-grab. Although I think his early cities were not the best choices (better would have been to grab the food-rich sites up north and then attempt to plant front-line cities), he still has the best starting techs and traits for playing the opening out of any player.
Recommended Beer Pairing:
![[Image: pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20beer.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137965916/pbem64/pbem64%20-%20intro%20-%20commodore%20beer.jpg)
Total Domination IPA by Ninkasi
Suffer Game Sicko
Dodo Tier Player
Dodo Tier Player