[Spoilers] Honest Cyneheard inherits the purple.

[Cyneheard]

The last "minor stuff" before the big tech trading post.

Game Mechanics:

The Draft: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft. A city must now end a draft at size 7 instead of size 5 (So size 9 to draft a rifle, size 8 to draft a musket).
Corporations: Completely removed from the game.
Culture Victory: 33K, 50K, 75K, 150K on Quick/Normal/Epic/Marathon.

No corps removes that aspect completely, and Quick CVs probably didn't need the nerfhammer (how many CVs have been tried in RB MP history?), but it limits the difference between Quick and Normal. Doesn't affect us here.
The draft mostly limits the Rifle draft and the Globe Draft City (Still leaves Globe/HE for a Whip Factory, especially if it's got SoZ and some way to get to 8 or 10XP). That may be the best use of Globe, as a the HE whip factory. It's a shiny prize, and one that would be nice to have.

Miscellaneous:

Coastal Blockade now has a range of 1 square around the blockader, instead of 3 squares
AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions.
Fail-gold: You never get fail-gold if you also completed the wonder somewhere else (so no National Wonder fail-gold, or doubling up on a wonder to guarantee yourself a paycheck. The game still informs you that you received "0 gold" from your hammers).
Hut techs: Can only gain:
Fishing, Sailing, Wheel, Pottery, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Hunting, Archery, Mysticism, Mining, Bronze Working, Masonry, Writing, Priesthood.

Coastal Blockades are broken in BtS, especially for Galleys/Triremes (blocking 3 tiles when they can only move 2? Ok...)
Again, we tweaked a mechanic so that it's still useful, but it takes work for it to take over a game. Can you still blockade an opponent? Yeah. Does it hurt? Yes. But can you do it with just one Galley? Nope.

AP Resolutions (see, say, PBEM10, I'm guilty as charged there) can really manipulate diplomacy in ways that shouldn't happen. The fail-gold change was to stop some of the intentional fail-gold tricks that people were pulling to get beyond-Wealth returns on failing wonders. None of these affect me much.

Huts can be on now, as there's only one really big prize (BW), and a few nice ones (Writing especially is nice, and Masonry can open up some new possibilities). But with barbs on and no scouts to start, scouting isn't always safe. And no worries about an opponent getting a free Oracle by popping Metal Casting. Still not convinced I'm going to send extra warriors out scouting, but that may change. Not sure; depends on the micro plan as well.

[Cyneheard]

@Lurkers: Are people getting a case of tl;dr? I'm half-using this to organize my own thoughts, but don't know what to expect from ya'll.

Tech Trading. The other mechanic that badly needs its own post.


Tech Trading:
Known Tech Bonus changed to 50 (up from 30), enabled by Tech Trading (so there is no Known Tech Bonus until you research Paper)
Alphabet no longer enables tech trading, allows Open Borders
Writing enables Map trading, no longer enables OB
Paper enables Tech trading, no longer enables Map Trading. Requires Metal Casting, Literature and Code of Laws as mandatory prerequisites.
Corporation enables Tech Trading (and increases Known Tech Bonus by 50%)
Scientific Method enables Tech Trading (and increases Known Tech Bonus by 50%)
Cost of Education, Gunpowder, Printing Press and Nationalism increased by 50%
Cost of all subsequent techs increased by 100%
Techs prior to Paper in the tech tree can no longer be traded:

The untradeable techs are as follows: Fishing, The Wheel, Agriculture, Hunting, Mysticism, Mining, Sailing, Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Meditation, Polytheism, Masonry, Horseback Riding, Priesthood, Monotheism, Bronze Working, Writing, Metal Casting, Iron Working, Aesthetics, Mathematics, Alphabet, Monarchy, Compass, Literature, Calendar, Construction, Currency, Machinery, Drama, Engineering, Code of Laws, Feudalism, Optics, Music, Philosophy, Civil Service, Theology, Divine Right, Paper, Guilds, Banking

So, this does all sorts of interesting things:
1) It really demarcates the game into "tradeable" and "untradeable" techs, and they act very differently. There FINALLY is an advantage for Byz in RBMod: Knights and Phracts have their heyday last a little longer because Gunpowder et al are quite a bit more expensive. But Phracts are a lot less dominant now between WE and only having 11 strength. Still, there's an opening here if I find myself in a position to take advantage of it. I'm basically trying to tenatively gameplan through Paper/Education early.

2) The Known Tech Bonus will eventually give players a chance to dig themselves out of a hole. PBEM22 this ain't. That's important; follow-the-leader works out just fine if there's one leader. If there are 2 or more people taking different routes on the tech tree and sharing their winnings with one another? Everyone else is in trouble.

3) How to handle Tech Trades? With just AI diplo, and no words communicated ever, then how can one ensure cooperation?
a) Open Borders should be straightforward.
b) Resource trades will have to be balanced; AI rules may suffice there. I doubt I'll be selling a resource for gpt.
c) Negotiations are going to be a bear for tech trades, as I'm sure we'll be quibbling over gold pieces. At least it's not a PBEM, where that would always require a 1t delay in the negotiations. I expect I'll be only asking for one-tech-for-one-tech types of deals; Paper can be sold for $$$ if I get there first, but not much else. Who's going to have 1200g on hand to buy Education? And I think 1200g is a LOW price for Education's 4500 beakers.

4) Paper requires one to go fairly broadly across the tech tree. Lit in particular is a detour, but one I think I'm going to be taking. Metal Casting is expensive, but shouldn't be avoided, and COL is decent enough, especially if I need Caste.

[Lewwyn]

2) The Known Tech Bonus will eventually give players a chance to dig themselves out of a hole. PBEM22 this ain't.

[Cyneheard]

Thought you'd appreciate that.

Seriously, though, while that worked perfectly for PBEM22, this game needs to be a lot more dynamic. Whereas PBEM22 almost had to be a one-big-mistake-and-you're-out kind of game, because it's rare to make TWO big mistakes when there's no wonders or war.

[Cyneheard]

Ok, the one-post summary of my gameplanning based on RBMod and all that:

MOVES:

T0:
Move warrior 4. If he doesn't find anything, move the settler 6-3 onto the PH.
T1:
Given above, I settle, and then the warrior moves 6 and pops the hut.

WONDERS:

Wonders I'd like to be able to get:
'Mids. Lets me go Farms/Mines/Scientists instead of Farms/Whips/Cottages for my food/MFG/GNP needs. I need stone, though. And I won't start it terribly quickly; I'll probably start it around the time Math comes in.
GLib. I'm Phi. 'Nuff said.
SoZ: Would be a fun wonder, and it's on the way to GLib. If I don't get it, whatever.

Wonders I'm ignoring:
Henge. I expect Biz of Ethiopia to knock that out.
Oracle. Nothing terribly enticing from the Oracle; I don't have the hammers to spare pre-Math to expand and get the Oracle.
GLight is probably crap.

Other wonders will be determined later.

TECH AND CIVICS:

Initial tech path, assuming limited warfare issues:
Agri
Mining --> BW
Pottery --> Writing --> Math
AH and Hunting will be teched as needed. I'll probably go BW --> Hunting --> AH if I don't have copper. If I only have iron, well, then I've got a problem.
Masonry if stone exists.

Tech priorities, medium-to-long term:
Math --> Currency
Lit
Guilds/Banking (Cataphracts, Merc, Grocers/Banks)
Paper --> Education

Econ:
Ideally, I'd like to run a Rep/Enviro/Caste/Merc --> State/Theo economy later. Slaving is decent enough early, and I'll leverage my Cha happy as much as I need to for good 1-pop whips.

[Ilios]

@Lurkers: Are people getting a case of tl;dr? I'm half-using this to organize my own thoughts, but don't know what to expect from ya'll.

Once the game gets going, if you sprinkle the occasional screenshot in your walls of text, you should be good.

Thanks for the explanation of the changes, I'm looking forward to see how the mod plays out in a Pitboss game (and how cool is it that leaders and civs were randomly chosen - again )

[Cyneheard]

Thanks Ilios, good to know.

Aye, random choice seemed to work well here. Lincoln is one of the worse leaders in base BtS (not because Phi and Cha are bad traits, but because they're so awkward together, and you're pulled in too many different directions), but I still feel as though he's decent enough under these settings.

I hope we get a start tonight??? We'll see what happens.

[Ilios]

So, early micro?

Edit: Nevermind, you have that covered in an earlier post.

[Cyneheard]

So, early micro?

Edit: Nevermind, you have that covered in an earlier post.

Early micro is also dependent on my capital, as I don't plan on settling in place.

[Cyneheard]

I moved my warrior 1W:



Dilemma: I've now get FP to the west as well. Is that better than the PH start? Let's think for a second.