There seems to be significant stratification in the game, mainly into two tiers. I’ll write about it while waiting for retep to play, since I’m going to have to go after him now that I plan to pressure his presumptive island city. He did double move me, but I don’t think he realized I was close until his second move. No big deal.
I haven’t done any C&D to this point to figure out who is where tech-wise, but here goes the strata identification according to standard ESPN reduction of nuanced issues into two simple camps:
Buying:
Gawdzak - Boudica of Rome(AGR/CHM,fish/mine) - Built the Mids and the Great Lighthouse. Even with TGL nerfed to one extra trade route, there appears to be so much water on this map that it is possible that every city of Gawdzak’s is coastal. He also now has early Representation with the food (near the top of CY) and happiness (+3 CHM happy) to support numerous specialists.
He also has the strongest early game unit in the 7str C1 Praetorian. Although he’d have to detour to Iron Working for it, there’s really good cause for doing so. He should be difficult to fight early on, altogether more confusing why slowcheetah decided to war him recently. I’d love to see what happened with that.
On a side note, he has un-netted clams in that wheat city he settled in front of me for nearly 30 turns. Should I sell him a work boat?
He’s certainly got enough cash from the other players giving him OB.
I consider him my prime threat at the moment due to proximity, his fantastic wonders, and size.
Mackoti - Charlemagne of Germany(IMP/PRO,hunt/mine) - Is this a surprise? Mack is top population (as far as I know) and I believe is also top MFG. He is hammering out wealth and units. He is between retep and Gavagai. He has a successful war under his belt versus Gavagai and recently built the Great Library. I believe his plan is to whip courthouses in his 13 cities and then get knigs and run over Gavagai and retep. Maybe one of those two has already happened, but knights are probably about 30 turns away for him.
I’m spending my EP on him to get demos because when is it not a bad idea to have Mack’s demos. The brewing retep conflict might change that, however.
SevenSpirits - Pericles of Russia(CRE/PHI,hunt/mine) - Also unsurprising that he’s here. He’s razed a city of HitAnyKey’s, so I presume that he will seek to expand through HAK in the future. Seven recently built MoM and will generate many GPs. We are the only apparent players with calendar. I don’t know much more about his position and won’t for some time.
Lord Parkin - Churchill of Zulu(CHM/PRO,agri/hunt) - Haven’t met him, but he apparently Oracled Code of Laws and founded Confucianism. Appears to be doing well and has the biggest city in the world at size 13. At second in score, it seems fairly safe to assume he’s doing well.
wetbandit - Tokugawa of India(AGR/PRO,mine/myst): I’ll slot myself here. I’ve had virtually no competition for land and still have uncontested areas to settle. I dug myself a bit of a hole foregoing currency and overexpanding. I’ve dug out of it somewhat, but I’ve only got Hinduism and a shrine to go along with my 13 cities. Not as impressive as the Mids plus Great Lighthouse plus 11 cities. I am second in population as far as I can tell, possibly neck and neck with Gawdzak for second. I am relatively insulated from land combat, particularly with respect to my western cities where there are no ports. I’d like to get a city on the landmass in that direction, the double fish and marble location is appealing.
My landmass is very confusing. I need to get a land unit on the southern shore to scout and figure out what the general nature of the land is. I have a (hopefully) unfounded fear that the rest of the world is not quite as snaky and watery as my land is and I’ll be left behind as soon as cottages mature and cities grow taller in the renaissance. The desire to test the new naval mechanics in ToW gives me some relief.
The next six players are probably a cut below the above five in terms of current position, ranked in no particular order.
Haram - Ragnar of Mongolia(FIN/AGR,hunt/wheel): Haven’t met, never played with him before, and have no clue other than that he’s sixth in score.
slowcheetah - Napoleon of Vikings(CHM/ORG,fish/hunt): A worrisome neighbor as the Vikings on this heavy water map; I’m very happy that he’s on my northern and southern coasts.
I’m glad he is fighting Gawdzak instead of me. My rice island city shares 2nd ring tiles with a mainland city of his, those two cities will be in cultural conflict. He could show up out of the fog with two galley loads of troops and I would be dispossessed of my rice city.
GermanJojo - Cyrus of Khmer(CHM/IMP,hunt/mine): See Haram above, haven’t met.
HitAnyKey - Wang Kon of Spain(FIN/PRO,fish/myst): Founded an early Buddhism and built Stonehenge. He had a low city count in the early game and had a city razed by Seven. He is my western neighbor and doesn’t appear to have any ports on our shared waters.
retep - Elizabeth of Egypt(FIN/PHI,agri/wheel): Probably hampered by Douglas Quaid’s opening. I’m reasonably certain he generated a Great Prophet on turn 43. He didn’t use it to found a religion, so he settled it. Even though he’s PHI, he had to work two priests for 8.5 turns instead of growth tiles. This means he had a obelisk in either his capital or his second city on T35 and two pop to work them. I hope it wasn’t his capital. He is the only player without a trait that provides early boosts to growth (FIN/PHI) in this game. Also, he's next to Mackoti.
I fear that he will view the island as his easiest path to expansion and put up a good fight for it.
Gavagai - Willem van Oranje of Ethiopia(FIN/CRE,hunt/mine): Fighting Mackoti, seems to be doing OK other than that. Which means not so OK. To be fair, I have no demos of his and we are newly eternal friends because of our fish for pig trade.
