My name is Ozymandias, King of China: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

These kind of posts are always entertaining. The fun of these games are the interactions with other humans, and what other ways are petty little snipes at them

Thestick: Peter (PHI/EXP) of Ottomans (Ag/Wheel/Jannisary/Hamman)

Okay traits, EXP is always good as usual, though PHI has lost its lustre as people work out how slow it is. Though pairing an early and a mid game trait is always a strong combo. This calls for a specialist economy. How good is Thestick, and can he out-micro me to the 'mids? I hope not!

Ottomans are the generically good civ, good traits and good UB (especially on Happy-starved maps).

SAT: Isabella (SPI/EXP) of Maya (Myst/Mining/Holkan/B-Ball Court)

Great traits, with middling Civ. I wanted Isabella, but that's what happens when the first Random.org result dumps you into the last pick . No real synergy with Maya, you want CRE Maya. Hattie of Maya would have been great, SPI for synergy with Myst, CRE for the cheap +2 ball courts. The UU is okay, my opinion of resourceless units on these kind of balanced maps is that you can get them onto the field a good dozen turns before anyone else, and start choking your opponents.

And I'm surprised no one wanted Egypt for War Chariots and Ag/Wheel, it's up there with the Best Civs. If I were Sareln, I'd want revenge for PBEM18. But I'm not, he may be more scared of him than I of the dude with the early UU.

Sian: Bismarck (IND/EXP) of Byzantium (Myst/Wheel/Cataphracts/Hippodrome)

Good old Bismarck, how many games as he won now? IND is good now that the metagame has shifted towards Wonders > FIN, but it's always been an all or nothing proposition. I actually forgot Sian picked Bismarck when I picked Ramesses . No matter, we'll divy up the wonders. He's not going to load up on Wonders without any competition.

PBEM29 spoilers:

Sian even got a hammers --> Wonder Failgold economy, meaning no one called him out on not spending hammers on obsoletel military!

He's always been militarily unlucky, getting invaded in 23 and 26. He's no longer sick of getting killed, now he wants to return the favour and is out for blood. Phracts are powerful, but they still don't fundementally change the balance between offence and defence unlike say Nationalism, Astronomy, Physics, Industrialism, Flight, etc. A half dozen cats and enough pikes means alot of dead Phracts. The trick is, can you concentrate your forces before he does? Does he have the Pindicator touch for logistics?

Tankra: Hattie (SPI/CRE) of Native America (Ag/Fishing/Dogs/Totem)

Great leader, again, pairing an early and mid game trait. Dogs means he doesn't want to die, or he's played enough Gamespy that he wants someone else to die. But if he really wanted to scare people, you go for War Chariots.

Nicolae: Ramesses (SPI/IND) of China (Ag/Mine/CKN/Pavillion)

Ramesses wasn't my first choice, but it'll do. I've done a REX game, how about a wonder game? The synergy is the cultural victory, though the +25% culture usually gets drowned out by the +100% from Free Speech, and the +150% from Cathedrals. It'll be useful for border wars. The free first strikes from CKNs get eaten by Phracts, but the high base strength is always useful. Maybe have Cats on tie Sian front, and CKNs on the other front.

And every single one of my traits, besides the starting techs, are mid-game! Yeah, this is risky, but what's like a little risk? Better than having everything be early game traits!

My original thought was that SPI/Mining lets me get a worker and a free warrior. The map doesn't support it though, and the Emperor difficulty means that BW takes 9 turns to tech. Not to mention the lack of forests pushes back the requirement for BW. Let someone else show off that cool trick.

Finally, a dedlurker of some kind would be good, just in case the real world gets too hectic and I need to palm the game off to someone else.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Thanks T-Hawk for the title change!

[Commodore]

Unless it's been changed in a parch, cataphracts actually aren't immune to first strikes.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Neat, Knights are immune to first strikes, so I assumed Phracts would be the same.

So yay for me! Let's see you try to Phract me now! But of course, a farmer's gambit relies on not building units in the early game, and building them in the mid game instead. Let's try to make that work.

Also, I hope I get the save within half an hour or so, else I'm going to bed.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Looking forward to this thread. The more obnoxious you are, the more entertaining it will be.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

715 tiles total (aka a ton of land tiles, though the quality of most is questionable).

Oh my, this makes it quite a bit trickier. Settling 4 gives a much better long-term capital. Settling 47 gives a much better short term capital. It's the difference between +9F and +7F in the capital. Growing from S3 to S6 will take 5 turns with +7F, 4 turns with +9F. The +7 option gives better wonderspamming options due to the abundance of hill mines, and better long-term qualities (lots of riverside grass).

Settings, before I forget.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I would totally wish I was Expansive. However, that would mean no easy way of getting commerce unlike the 'mids, and expansion isn't that great with Emp difficulty. The world seems flat, and it may very well end up being a race towards the centre (Lord Parkin's patented expand in one direction paradigm).

But then again, 47 gives 5 forests for chopping, as opposed to 3 forests. But on the other hand, I'd probably end up regretting sacrificing long term for short term more. So fuck it, let's check the coast, and settle 4.

<TBF>

What we see of the coast (and oh fuck, there's a crab just to make my decision harder. That's okay, I can fit a city to the south to eat those crabs).

<TBF>

Demos.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Just to show how much of a jerk Commodore is with the hard decisions, here is the map (saves me posting the T0 map).

What do I know? Both Sian and thestick settled on T0, though whether or not it they moved to the coast, or to their equivalent of 7, needs work to determine. Total land area of everyone else is 33, max land area is 9, least land area is 7. Hence, someone settled without water, someone settled next to the lake, and the remaining land area of the other 2 is 17. This could can only be split 8 and 9, meaning someone indeed settled 2 on the coast.

In conclusion, two people settled inland, and one of them settled to 7, and the other to 4. Strangely, Tankra didn't settle on the coast (despite Ag/Fishing), as he spent a turn moving. I expect Sian to have moved next to the lake for the extra chop hammers, so Stick likely moved coastal. That worries me, does Sian want the mids over Oracle?

Maybe I should scare him a little, leak my "plans" to slingshot Machinery using the Oracle. Give myself an easily beatable ETA for the Oracle, to push him to race me for the thing. Surely no one wants super early CKNs slaughtering everybody?

And how should I scout? There are two general directions, 9 into the tundra, and 1 into the grassland. My borders will pop and reveal all the tiles to the west, meaning there is little reason to double back my warrior to 1. I'm tempted to send him north, if I were Commodore, I'd put the nice land in one direction and the valuable wonder resources in the other. There is alot of land available, so there shouldn't be too much competition for land.

This map also seems to be flat using Seven's map trick, though I'll need to check that I'm doing it correctly. While sending the save to Sian (and complaining that this was a hard start), he let slip that his north was a wasteland. That makes me suspect he's to my west, assuming equal starts. Maybe I should contact him asap and get him talking about wonders, and tempt him to go for Oracle while I go for the 'mids. Something like "Hahaha, I've worked out a way to slingshot Machinery without even Grocers! Fear my CKNs! ETA 50 turns" may work. I dunno.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Oh yeah, I finally got Flying Camera to work. And the world is not flat, it's got a cylindrical wrap! Ouch, the maintenance is going to be brutal, I think the 2nd worker before settler is safer.

And send the save already, SAT!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Here's our repeating map. Diagonal strips that wrap horizontally, see the peaks and the sheep. Whoever's to my west is not the coastal, else I'd have contact. It's also probably really hard to get physical contact, meaning there's no risk of a choke.

Oh my, Stick got a 6pts. That's consistent with a tech. There was a 2k power increase somewhere, so I think that was Hunting. But the banter thread makes me think he settled on the coast, with a way to cross the ice but the culture. Let's hope Stick lands a holy city to piss off Tankra!

This in turn makes me think Sian settled inland. We'll see if Sian get's a point increase next turn alongside a power increase.