I have asked in the general thread. I would like to have one to start discussing our opponents picks.
Until then the extremely preliminary tech plan is feudalism, civil service and then either machinery or philosophy depending on military situation. I plan to use all forests in my initial cities for settlers/workers. I plan to settle one of my early cities to get a lot of forest and chop out a wonder, hopefully timed around feudalism. Unless there is marble I do not think that the initial wonders except colossus will go too early for that.
Still no full lists (though why would we need all ten in the first place when there are only six players, even considering the possible ban?), but we finally got the list of civs. All of our top four went, along with Gandhi of China (one of my top picks), but the surprise is Suleiman of Maya, and while I didn't like him, you didn't think he was completely awful (even if he didn't make your list).
First up, naming scheme. My first idea is heresies, then medievalists or if we want to be absolutely sure that no one has done it before medieval insults in Swedish (did an essay on that topic). Do you have any suggestion or preference?
My prediction fell out well I think. I valued fin a bit higher and imp a bit lower than the others. We took a risk with Mansa, but the other choices we could have got instead were not bad so I think it was worth it. I'm a bit surprised that Suleiman was chosen over either Elisabeth for eco or Justinian for war but otherwise it is as predicted. I wonder if the other players avoided the most contested choices, like Victoria and Mansa. The traits fell out as I expected considering there was not many industrialist. I was secretely hoping for Ramses or Capac but Mansa was number three on the list.
Player Analysis:
Roosevelt of Dutch, Ot4E:
Very ruthless and creative player. Looks like he might be aiming to repeat his wonderspamming ways of PB 34. He is in a great position there, as he combined all the wonders with an early conquest.
Suleiman of Maya, BlackSword:
Know a bit about him, he seems like a very solid player. I predict either GL or MoM to leverage his traits.
Victoria of Russia, Gavagai:
Do not know the player but he seems to have placed quite well. Very strong leader, the queen REX.
Gandhi of China, Germanjoey:
Do not know him as a player, only his abrasive style on the forum. Seems like he might try something cute with that combo.
Darius of Japan, Cairo:
The other candidate to win in PB 34. Took some serious risk but has caught up to OT4E in that game and is now in a great economic position (to eat me). With a great economic leader I expect him to have a fantastic economy but there may be opportunities to catch him unaware.
Mansa Musa of Arabia, Chumchu:
Punching bag in chief?
I have been playing some test starts with Mansa. Some observations:
Depending on forest cover I want 4-6 workers initially. I'm thinking about what is best either letting one city grow after its first worker or getting 2 in each. Will depend on the start.
You can start teching right away thanks to financial. Feudalism first is probably best as serfdom means you get faster improvements and need less workers. Feudalism gives xp and longbows which should protect me from barbs. However, if I have a monster cap or some important irrigation I might go for bureaucracy first. Then I grow the capital asap to try to get it big in time for the first settler whip (at least 6 pop). My concern is that this delays the first settler unless I have a lot of commerce.
Ideally you want both these civics asap which is why fin is so good in combination with spi and getting the discount matters a lot.
If there is good land then any stab at a wonder should probably wait a bit longer than I thought unless we get marble. After 6 cities and with OR and forge seems about right.
So very lush starts? Very interesting. The options seem like SIP, 1N, and 1W, and I'm leaning towards 1N at first glance (start by chopping out a worker or workboat, second city in the south either 1S of sheep or 1SE of silk, probably the latter).
I'm leaning towards settling on sugar and fur. Fur is a bit of a waste of a good tile even if it still gives 3 commerce. It is the only way to get seafood and sheep if we want to settle on sugar which looks like the strong move. The other choice is settle in place and hope to find something in the fog. 5 food tiles for the cap seems a bit excessive while 3/3 seems about right. Scouting should be 33 with exp, 1 with west archer and 9 with east. If we discover something good I might go for settle in place, otherwise it is 2 cities. With SiP, bureaucracy first looks interesting. The second city might then be 114 or 336. If we go 2 cities then serfdom would be nice as we will need all the worker turns we can squeeze out of the 4 initial workers.
The start is very low on forests and high on resources so growing on the rice tiles early looks good. We might actually grow before the first worker which takes 5 turns with sugar/rice. This shaves of 2 turns on the worker, even more if we whip it. Then we end up with a half full food box as well due to the granary. The question is if we want to improve the rice right away for slaving or start chopping.
Good luck guys! I'm going to lurk unspoiled in this thread because with two of you there will be more discussion so I can hope to learn more. Also, Chumchu was kind enough to post advice in my SG - least I can do is cheer along here.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
