[Spoilers] When Commodore is 64

[Rowain]

And I'm far too nice to mention your mistakes

[Commodore]

Hah, fair enough.

Well, part of the reason for good demos is of course being a turn up on everyone else. I forgot to revolt with the first settler's moving, so this turn was spent enslaving my people! Not that I intend to actually whip for a while yet; need granaries first. My dotmap is more or less settled for what I've explored thus far; the only question remaining is when I want to grab Sailing and get Cow Island Trade Routes going; I suspect Writing for some map trades needs to be first, I'm curious about my western neighbors.

Durp. Slavery is needed, folks.

[Commodore]

Commodore (erratic, prolix)
as
Genghis Khan (Aggressive, Imperialistic)
of
China (Agriculture, Mining, Chucklenaught, Pavilion)
Skill Consistency:
Fear Factor:

Well, I think I already gave a big portion of my spiel beforehand:

Yeah, so I missed the chance to hang with the cool kids using Organized; no regrets, though. It's strange given my reputation (basically, Genghis Khan) that I've never actually played...Genghis Khan. RBmod is the pace to do it, though. Imperialistic didn't get a huge buff but +60% on settlers is never ever bad (custom houses on a Pangaea are near worthless, though) and Aggressive's baked-in maintenance reduction pairs nicely with settler spam. I don't see this game going to an always-peace space race condition, so the war aspects of the trait will be handy. I probably will spam some normal-speed barracks border monuments like an idiot...and I am the me who is okay with this today. China's Chucklenaughts won't get the bonus combat one but who cares? They're basically just uber-terrifying super cats that also work on cats (yo dawg). I'd be okay with any of the combos listed, but with the possible exception of Wetbandit's, this is the leader/civ that looks the most fun. So my border popping will suck and my late game economy will be weak? Who cares, I just need to rush out to 50% more cities than the rest of them and then eat a guy.

The final sentence seems particularly ironic, given what I now know (pending Wetbandit being found NW) of the map layout. Given my borders are a triangle-like configuration on east and west sides, a fair shake a competing would have to actually involve 100% more cities than rival average. Given the quality of the rivals, that's not going to happen. But let's still look at my combo.

Imperialistic is kind of a weird trait; I'm pretty sure its associated memetic of “more cities” is flawed. Sure, civilizational snowballs being what they are you will often find the Imperialist with more cities, but a better way to look at this is “earlier cities”. Or, as in this case, “extra stuff plus cities”, like going for two workers and some extra growth before the first settler. Over-expansion is a nasty trap and crashing the economy is never fun, nor at all safe in multiplayer. So a better way to use it is to enjoy those ~37 extra hammers per settler build by making “more stuff”.

Aggressive is what will actually enable more cities; if the normal must-have-courthouses drop-dead point is eight cities, with Aggressive you're looking at more like ten cities. That's pretty nice, with the current +2 happy setup roughly comparable to Charismatic's bonus in terms of tiles worked, albeit later (smoother curve). Popping borders with barracks is about like popping them with monuments; sucks, but sometimes needed and at least this way you can get some promotions out of the deal. Aggressive is going to serve me like theoretical Protective here, if I can grab the advanced Foxworthy location towards Pindicator, something beyond Ennesby towards Yuri, and similar pushes against Wetbandit/Flugauto...access to shock makes me happy, feel better about swordsmen hits. The promotions are even better, of course, in Amphibious Era and Commando Era wars.

I probably shouldn't, but with chucklenaughts I'm seriously considering doing a mixed offensive at Machinery. Aggressive swordsmen are horrifically terrifying now, so to just mix them with chucklenaughts and waddle down on someone hardcore might be scary, even more so off of boats. That's my great thought for the civilization, honestly...we've already benefitted from the techs and pavilions are just...yeah. So endure the pink color and chuckle up, folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Early Game Power:
Middle Game Power:
Late Game Power:
Combo Power:

Biggest Threat To:

[TheHumanHydra]

I noticed, but fell prey to the bystander effect.

[Old Harry]

I thought it was a cruel Simpsons reference.

[von Adlercreutz]

I thought it was a Eurabia joke.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I didn't notice it.

[Commodore]

I love you all too. I opted to build a fourth warrior in one turn from Schlock before going onto another worker/settler pair.

In lieu of granaries, mine. Miss being RBmod protective.

As you might have noticed above, we're feeling a bit more of an economy drain in the form of -3gpt. Welcome, Tagon. The snowball is more than a little slushy given the lack of amazing high-food tiles and/or floodplains gold, but maybe AH will reveal horse in-border somewhere boosty. We'll see. You can also see here Flugauto's warrior poking around where he isn't welcome, but it's okay...extra aggressive warrior should be sufficient distinctive if he feels like frisky business.

Grass cows then wet rice. Woo.

Flugauto also has Writing, also, evidently. So now I know his surprisingly cramped situation, as he knows mine. Fun times.

Nice land. Pity about the battle damage it's going to sustain.

[Commodore]

Animal Husbandry, discovered! Now that we can hunt, of course, we can also see...where horses are? Never been too keen on that logic, but okay. We've got horse options, certainly, but nothing too attractive. Here in the West Side, we're looking at a hard-to-dotmap little mess with the lake, clams, and married-to-for-snowball purposes already set dot. Plus, well, that stone is soon Aztec I'm sure.

This is a super-stressful location, you guys.

East Side, we have horses...under the hoped-for Ennesby spot. Heh, of course. This whole sector is going to go haywire, because I think C&D says that the Real Unit just built was probably Pindicator, and he's likely to contest this borderland area. If he sticks east of Foxworthy dot, we're okay, but he might opt to wreck me a bit...those lakes are very attractive to Financial.

For the four players in this game, the central gimmick of the map is “how to deal with Commodore”. Interesting exercise for them and those viewing at home, I'm sure.

[Commodore]

Life is well and good for now but it's all going to hell soon I'm sure, when everyone encroaches on the borders all at once. Here's Home China; I really need to give some thought on how I want to play this. I think I need to try to get a decent estimation of what one fifth of the world looks like, drawn on the map, then push to lay a solid claim on that chunk and a little more. Then, build fleets and try to punch out one of the weaker limbs. That's a horrifically fraught proposition, however.

Still the only man with three cities, that strikes me as odd.

The other way to play this would be to make concessions on all fronts save one (or at most, two)...invest in striking down against Yuri or Flugauto or up against Wetbandit or Pindicator while allowing the other side to win territorial gains scot-free. Practically, a little bit of that is going to happen, anyway. Trouble is this nasty jungle band on either side favors everyone slanting down into clear China.

Only thing really clear is that my position as human barb means taking this game seriously would be heartburn for zero point. I'm going to cheerfully muck about and play my turns faithfully, but screw contention aspirations. Krill's troll ain't worth getting worked up over.