So....Gandhi of France Anyone? (Leader/Civ Picking Thread)

[oledavy]

Third post in a row, but I promised opposing team analyses. Most of these players are known, so I'm not going to spend much time talking about the individual players as much as how I think we should approach the opposing teams.

And for the record, this game is so much of a PB6 clone in terms of players that it's scary. It's on a lakes map designed by Plako to boot.


Team Spullarise = TEAM SMACKDOWN

If there was ever a game poised to turn into a veterans' romp and stomp, even more than PB6, it's this one. Seriously, Mackoti, Krill, Novice and Seven all on the same team....that is damn terrifying. By my reckoning they're the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best players on the site. I don't feel like we're going to see the general "Pyramids -> Win" play from Mackoti/Seven here, since they have civs and leaders that don't really lend themselves to a specialist economy. This might be a little outside their comfort zone, but I'm sure it won't hinder them too much. Seriously though, we need to do everything possible to screw this team over or they will bulldoze us. Generally, Mackoti's main weakness as a player is that he does not micro extensively, and plays intuitively (albeit extremely well). With Krill, Novice and Seven teamed up with him, they're going to be rocking long-term micro plans. I wouldn't be surprised if Novice has already micro'd the first 25 turns. Anything we can do to throw them off their sandbox is a must. With any luck, Krill will lose interest and stop ded-lurking. They'll still be terrifying, but minus the Krill-fueled desire to dominate all life on this earth.





Team #2 = TEAM LAME



Lewwyn and Commodore, together at last... Team grudge much? With Scooter, Ellimist, and Brick aiding them in addition to Pin's amazing propensity for micro, they'll definitely be tough, but not insurmountably so. These are all very capable players, none are exceptionally skilled, but they are in general a well-rounded bunch of individuals with a wide-range of strengths. Our overriding foreign policy directive for this game needs to be thus:



Don't fuck with them.

Seriously, I don't want Commodore/Lewwyn to ever be in a position where they feel they need to eradicate us, because they will just keep coming and never stop. If you don't believe me, go see Lewwyn in PBEM14 or Commodore in....well...any game he's ever been in. Fortunately, with Team Smackdown looming over the game, they have a very strong incentive to work with us. I'm guessing they'll work with us as long as Mackseven seem to be the biggest threat. The exception to this is if they believe they can augment their position by absorbing our lands. Bottomline though: we don't antagonize these people. We don't WC choke them, we don't pink-dot them. If they pink dot us we say: "Thanks! have another pink dot!" When we post sentries, make them scouts. Whatever we do, we need to stay friends with these guys.


Team Reject/Bring It! = The 4H Club

.....

You tell me



No seriously, you tell me.

The 4H Club is composed of, as near as I can remember, HitAnyKey, Old Harry, Hydra, and CFCJesterfool with Nakor and Serdoa advising. In IR terms, I would rate this team as equivalent to 1914 Italy, or present-day Brazil. We all know they exist and that they have potential, we're just not exactly sure how much potential and what their impact will be. I seriously hope this team does not implode a la Team #4 in PB6, however, they seem to have better espirit d'corps so far. HitAnyKey had a pretty abysmal showing in PB7, I'm not sure if he's improved since then. CFCJesterFool just got eliminated from PB8. I won't say more here for fear of spoilers, but suffice it to say that his play was sub-optimal (though he's probably learned a lot from that defeat thanks to Sulla and may be a force to be reckoned with now). As for Old Harry and Hydra, I have no idea whatsoever. In the advising role, we have Nakor and Serdoa. Nakor has proven over and over again that he's competent at building nations, just not very good at defending them. What makes this team really hard to gauge is Serdoa advising. I would rank him among the top ten players on the site. If he stays engaged, his counsel could make their team very scary. However, I get the feeling he won't stay around for all of it. So, as to how we approach them, have to figure this one out as we go along. As a member of the not-team-Smackdown club, we have a vested interest in staying friendly. However, not so much as the terminators on Team Lew Adores Mist


And Finally

Real Men of Genius = Real Men of Genius: Reloaded



Not much to say here. We did pretty well in PB6, but not good enough to win. At least this time we don't have the spectre of a super-fast culture victory to combat We have a pretty good fellowship gathered together, WK, Shoot, Ceil, Superjm, Brian and myself - so here's hoping for a victory!

hammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammerhammer

[superjm]

Let's see if my ability to micro stands up to the likes of our opponent

[Brian Shanahan]

Dibs on Gimli.

I'm short, bearded, like quaffing beer and can be very bad tempered.

[WarriorKnight]

So, are we all on the same page for the first move? I'm thinking Gandhi settles in place if moving scout 2S reveals nothing. Huayna settles in place, scout could go anywhere (depending on what the minimap shows I guess). Both build worker first teching BW -> Fishing.

[oledavy]

That's the plan as far as I know.

A brief side note: We need to make sure we play these two civs as a cohesive whole, a la Spulla in PB6, and not make it a game of two allied civilizations.

[Fintourist]

Very amusing opponent analysis!
I'm looking forward to both your performance and reporting!

[Shoot the Moon]

So, are we all on the same page for the first move? I'm thinking Gandhi settles in place if moving scout 2S reveals nothing. Huayna settles in place, scout could go anywhere (depending on what the minimap shows I guess). Both build worker first teching BW -> Fishing.

Also my thoughts. I'm planning to have the Huayna scout movement depend on how we're lined up as the two civs--that is I think it makes most sense to move scout away first rather than the land between us.

Also, why 2S? I would think we are much less likely to move the settler 2S than 1N if we see something nice. Moving the scout 2N would potentially mean we could settle in place, 1N, or 2N if we see a food resource better than rice up there. Probably pretty hard to beat in place though...all four of those lake tiles are going to be 3F! That being said, I see 1N as a more likely settling spot than 2S even if both are probably unlikely.

[WarriorKnight]

Also, why 2S? I would think we are much less likely to move the settler 2S than 1N if we see something nice. Moving the scout 2N would potentially mean we could settle in place, 1N, or 2N if we see a food resource better than rice up there. Probably pretty hard to beat in place though...all four of those lake tiles are going to be 3F! That being said, I see 1N as a more likely settling spot than 2S even if both are probably unlikely.

Judging from the trees in both screenshots, I'm guessing we're north of the equator and HC is back line/Gandhi front line (Gandhi is definitely N of equator, while HC is further then Gandhi from the equator. It's likely HC is north of Gandhi, but we can't rule out the unlikely possibility that HC is south and we're isolated). Because of that, we should go 2S as that's where the contested terrain will be and meet people.

It'll be very difficult to justify not settling in place I agree, especially assuming the map is balanced.

[Brian Shanahan]

That's the plan as far as I know.

A brief side note: We need to make sure we play these two civs as a cohesive whole, a la Spulla in PB6, and not make it a game of two allied civilizations.

I'd love it if you could swing it to do this, while simultaneously convincing the other teams that both RMOG civs are at loggerheads and doing their own things. The on the other teams would be priceless once ye swing into position as a remorseless killing team.

Probably not possible though.

[Shoot the Moon]

That's the plan as far as I know.

A brief side note: We need to make sure we play these two civs as a cohesive whole, a la Spulla in PB6, and not make it a game of two allied civilizations.

I'd love it if you could swing it to do this, while simultaneously convincing the other teams that both RMOG civs are at loggerheads and doing their own things. The on the other teams would be priceless once ye swing into position as a remorseless killing team.

Probably not possible though.

Huh?