Civ AI Survivor: Season Five

[Kuro]

Still not really a fan of these championship game mirrored starts. Feels very gamey and it ends up with a start that rewards things pretty differently: Everyone is coastal, everyone has a Hunting resource at the capital, so Fishing and Hunting get an artificial boost. Everyone has copper at the start in a season where a lack of copper has been a recurring theme. Despite taking place on a Cold map in the Cold season the Finals are very obviously not Cold, I'm still not really a fan.

Playoff Game Three thoughts:

Hey, my YOLO play worked out! I did really like Gilgamesh and Mehmed's starts, Gilgamesh is a good AI, I was right Creative would be strong here. I actually think Mehmed got fairly screwed this game with the barbarians, which stunted his triple Agriculture growth, but it got made up for by Gandhi taking Huayna's iron which kept Huayna from attacking for hundreds of years (the AI won't attack with just horses and archers if it can help it). I don't know that Gilgamesh + Mehmed is the HIGHEST PERCENTAGE play, but I do think Gilgamesh was the 2nd best and that Gilgamesh + Mehmed make natural allies this game. It was funny how Gilgamesh went from struggling with Hannibal to running over everyone, but Mehmed/Peter had THE incompetent 2v1 war so.

So, with Mehmed, Washington and the like, is this the weakest championship field ever? I find it hilarious only one Pool One leader made it to the end and it was Charlemagne, the one nobody believed in. Perhaps my like of him was not misplaced? Charlemagne, Willem and Gilgamesh all appeared in the Season Four Championship, perhaps surprising to have so much of many returning leaders with more middling scores. Washington and Mehmed, with the lowest scores, both went to the north. Washington and Asoka being in the north together when this map has sooooooo much north-south distance could matter.