This is gonna be good: von Adlercreutz and Taotao

[taotao]

Ok, so first impressions:

Organised is really good for the economy and creative does help when planting cities. None of them help much with defending/ capturing new cities, and we lack imp/exp/pro for pushing out the first cities so that really is something we need to focus on. It's also something that is vastly different from SP (at high levels), where settling pace is often dictated by what's economically feasible...
We've got no less than 6 (!) cheap buildings that vary in importance, but most are fairly useful.

The Dutch are an ok nation. In SP they're actually one of my top picks on watery maps, but MP is a slightly different matter. Both UU and UB are actually good, but they come very late. Starting techs are ok, but far from great unless you hit the starting food jackpot. EIs are great, getting you naval superiority at (potentially bee-lined) astronomy and fairing ok:ish even against frigates. Dikes (now at RepP) give amazing production, but waiting for these to come into play equals delaying conquering for way too long.

Synergy-wise there's not a whole lot going on. Well, we're definitely able to develop icy shores (free culture, cheap buildings amongst which lighthouse comes to mind, and eventually dikes), but for instance our UB doesn't come cheap. Really, the only real bit of synergy I see is that we'll go for early astronomy and there we'll get cheap observatories...

In general I'd say that this combo is much more geared towards the late game than what I'd prefer, but I still think that it's good enough for me to take it would it only be up to me.

[von Adlercreutz]

Gavagai seems to me as a rather aggressive player and also quite good at war. See how he played pb22 invading mackoti and later Donovan. Against mackoti he seemed prone to duel mentality rather than eating land from HAK which would have been mutually beneficial (I'm not claiming which option was better, just saying that Gav played it more as an duel against mack than ffa style). Also he can be dangerous in bad positions too: see pb25 and his rush against Borsche. We can't afford to show weakness to him, he said that he decided to go for the rush because of an unimproved seafood (well that lead to him thinking Borsche was noob).

17. CheaterHater
OK, but not more. Could be irratic and attack for no good reason?

My impression of CH leads me to thinking of him as a quite peaceful player. This is based on his posts in pb18, he talked about how he didn't like warfare and how stressful he felt it. He did have a lot of wars in pb23 though, but was he more attacker or target, I didn't follow that too closely.

[von Adlercreutz]

Ok, so first impressions:

Organised is really good for the economy and creative does help when planting cities. None of them help much with defending/ capturing new cities, and we lack imp/exp/pro for pushing out the first cities so that really is something we need to focus on. It's also something that is vastly different from SP (at high levels), where settling pace is often dictated by what's economically feasible...
We've got no less than 6 (!) cheap buildings that vary in importance, but most are fairly useful.

The Dutch are an ok nation. In SP they're actually one of my top picks on watery maps, but MP is a slightly different matter. Both UU and UB are actually good, but they come very late. Starting techs are ok, but far from great unless you hit the starting food jackpot. EIs are great, getting you naval superiority at (potentially bee-lined) astronomy and fairing ok:ish even against frigates. Dikes (now at RepP) give amazing production, but waiting for these to come into play equals delaying conquering for way too long.

Synergy-wise there's not a whole lot going on. Well, we're definitely able to develop icy shores (free culture, cheap buildings amongst which lighthouse comes to mind, and eventually dikes), but for instance our UB doesn't come cheap. Really, the only real bit of synergy I see is that we'll go for early astronomy and there we'll get cheap observatories...

In general I'd say that this combo is much more geared towards the late game than what I'd prefer, but I still think that it's good enough for me to take it would it only be up to me.

The leader seems nice to me, not too much to early game though. I think the traits are synergistic, cheap libraries benefit more when you can keep the slider higher (or more often at 100%) and org helps with that.

Civ seems quite blank to me, naval edge is of course nice if we get there. It comes mostly down to the leader.

Synergy between the traits and uniques? Well, I think one is better off by just trying to get good stuff than trying too hard to get synergistic pick in this regard. First rule to me is to play the map, playing civ/leader comes second to that. If the situation calls for early astro, then yeah let's go for it.

Well, need to take a look at what there is left, but I'm inclined to keep, mostly for the leader.

[von Adlercreutz]

It'd be nice to know something about the map, but well I think it could be assumed that lighthouses and navies play some role.

[taotao]

The first roll. Wanna bet who's going to keep/discard their picks?

Ichabod: Keep. (solid combo)
Plako: Keep? Likes to take one of the big wonders and should know how to utilize spiritual
Barteq: Discard or be forever mocked
Grimace: Keep. Aztecs are likely high in demand after FinHarry in PB18
Dtay: Keep. Wins the race for Oracle.
Serdoa: Keep? Finishes 6th when the dust settles.
Krill: Keep. Oh my. Oh my. Will he role play?
R.E.M.: Discard? decent combo, but few people are delighted by unrestricted combos.
AdreinIer: Keep.
Commodore: Keep, but won't like it (individually he likes all parts though)
Donovan Zoi: Keep. Agg zulu means no one will mess with you early on.
theWannabe: Keep. Probably wants to be left alone...
Automated Teller: Keep (mostly because he can't be bothered). Will he crash his economy?
Elkad: Discard. (unless he notices something cool about the new America)
CheaterHater: Discard. Hopes for something better.
Molach: Keep (but grumble)
HitAnyKey: Keep (but worries about utilizing spiritual). Tries to go for cossaks, but gets conquered before.
Borsche: Keep. Will do his best to feed some berserkers, but builds too few.
Yuris: Keep. Buddhism or Hinduism?
NylesStandish: Discard? Honestly could do anything.
Tasunke: Keep. Watch out for a couple of immortals!
Gavagai: Keep. Rushes to CAs.

[von Adlercreutz]

Barteq should keep as a trollpick and bully neighbours with culture. First build in a city should be a terrace, that's basic stuff, then agg barracks, sure that's cheap and oh, I've got cheap library too, let's get that. Oh my, I stole your first ring food, well that's because of my superior culture you punk!

[taotao]

It'd be nice to know something about the map, but well I think it could be assumed that lighthouses and navies play some role.

I believe it was Brick that made the map for pb13. There (at least) most players started on one of a few big continents with some smallish and useful, but contended land in between. If it's the same here I'd probably say that we should focus on our own continent normally, but if we're the dutch...

[taotao]

Barteq should keep as a trollpick and bully neighbours with culture. First build in a city should be a terrace, that's basic stuff, then agg barracks, sure that's cheap and oh, I've got cheap library too, let's get that. Oh my, I stole your first ring food, well that's because of my superior culture you punk!

Haha, I'd love to see that!
(unless we're the ones getting hit)

[von Adlercreutz]

Judging by his title krill is going to keep. I should probably get to sleep.

[taotao]

I said:

Krill: Keep. Oh my. Oh my. Will he role play?

You said:

Judging by his title krill is going to keep.

Krill's posted:


Hey Krill, come up with something new will you?