[PB79] End of the beginning?

[Dreylin]

So how did T0 go; any adjustments to the plan?

[coldrain]

No picture for now, but founded capital in place and started a workboat. Following the WB first plan into worker. Using the plains hill for max production. Research will be agri -> mining -> BW if map ezploration doesn't reveal anything special.

I'll probably write some thoughts on players and civ picks later.

[coldrain]

Turn 2

Scouting and demos:

A forest grew 1W of capital, hopefully that grassland hill stays open. Otherwise worker will have to build a grass farm while waiting for BW. Scout will move a bit southeast and then loop back clockwise through west. Based on demos, looks like everyone else is working the forested banana.

[coldrain]

Oh, and I haven't locked in a naming theme yet. I was thinking of leaving the Dark Souls inspired themes for EitB games, so what to do here? Hmm, maybe a Kenshi theme? I recently started playing that game, I could borrow city or region names from there.

[greenline]

Never seen a forest grow in the first two turns before.

[Dreylin]

Based on demos, looks like everyone else is working the forested banana.

Interesting. 3/4 of your opponents started with Fishing, but none have chosen to go WB-first. Everyone clearly has a 4/1/0 tile, and everyone is researching a first-row tech since there's no pre-req bonus showing in the GNP.

Could always skip from Dark Souls to Endless Ring (I'm still stuck deep in the DLC)?

[coldrain]

Could always skip from Dark Souls to Endless Ring (I'm still stuck deep in the DLC)?

Would be a possibility, but currently I'm on my first blind playthrough of Elden Ring and I haven't explored all of the regions yet. No DLC yet for me either. Just reached Altus Plateau, there's a lot more to discover. I like the game, and my only complaint is that the open world style map is exhausting to explore at times, I very much prefer the more compact (but cleverly shortcutted) Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Some boss designs are a bit repetetive too, but that is less of an issue to me.

[coldrain]

Since this is my first Pitboss game, if playing as a backup for couple of turns doesn’t count, it makes sense to me to talk a little of my experience as civ 4 player. I already mentioned this in my very first PBEM game here (EitB LVI), but might as well discus it here too. Overall I’ve played civ 4 BTS shortly after the expansion came out. I’ve played direct ip BTS multiplayer with my friends for a long time, but these games have always been with large/huge maps at epic game speed and including a lot of AI opponents mixed in. This is of course very different to the RB forum games: namely the lack of AI, no tech trading and limited diplo. Plus CtH is totally new mod for me too.
 
I found this forum some years ago and started to read the PB game reports shortly after. I especially like FFH2/EitB games, shame that some of the old picture links broke permanently. By now I think I have read every FFH2 game that has pictures left and about 30% of BtS/CtH/RtR games? Reading previous game threads has given me an idea of the “meta” on most recent games, but I’m still learning a lot. Some of my persistent bad single player habits are slow exploration and over building infrastructure. Hah, in one of the older games with my friends group, I was totally rushed by mass whipped horse archers, that taught me to be more observant of the game state. Nowadays I rarely build late game economy infrastructure like universities or banks (wealth building gives the benefit now, infrastructure pays back a lot later). I’m actually a bit surprised how much some players build those. But I’ll see how the situation develops in this game. Also I find it interesting how popular knight rushes are in this forum, maybe I should try that too? Too early to plan for that now anyway, need to explore first before committing to any long term plan.  
 
I’ll write a proper opponent analysis at some point, but first impression is that there are relatively new civ 4 players in this game. Glad to see more people are still discovering this masterpiece of strategy gaming. I’ll try to continue writing detailed reports, but lets see how much time it will take, as I’m prioritizing writing comprehensively on EitB LVII (hopefully more people get interested to try the mod). Looking forward to see how this game unfolds!

[coldrain]

Turn 9

Exploration of southern lands so far:

I wonder what map-script is used, there are many resources on terrain they usually don’t spawn in (sugar or rice on hill for example). Maybe these have been edited in by the map-maker? Haven’t met other players yet. Everyone else grew to size two, corresponding working the forested banana. Workboat completed T6 and I started a worker immediately. Curious to see later how my more commerce oriented start compares to others, my plan is to go for BW quickly and start chopping to catch up.

I haven’t locked in first expansion spot yet, but that fish SE of capital looks promising. For first expands, I usually like to share food tiles with capital to make early growth faster and to enable tile swapping after whips. Demos:

[civac2]

Map is Tectonics with water level set to lakes.