Gaspar, Lewwyn, et al go full Sartre

[NobleHelium]

Gaspar is clearly telling you guys to stop posting so that his views to posts ratio increases.

[BRickAstley]

All that's needed in here Is some cool beats and some Kayne Best

[Gaspar]

It appears the trolls come out after I go to bed.

Well you got what I think is the best leader in this setup by far. Maybe that was a mistake, now you'll feel worse about losing.

I'M GOING TO WIN, DAMMIT. Right? Right???

Probably just smurf views.

Well-played, sir, well-played.

I think the name of this thread should be "The trolls feed on Gaspar".

I'll be late to work because I had to post this, by the way. Still think it was worth it!

Better watch that you don't get eaten by a troll on your way to the office.

Gaspar you want a different civ color? I like Green, so I'm good with that. I'm guess they wouldn't give us black...

Ottoman standard is fine. Would also be fine with a nice smurfy shade of blue.

Gaspar is clearly telling you guys to stop posting so that his views to posts ratio increases.

All that's needed in here Is some cool beats and some Kayne Best

[Gaspar]

Well, you have certainly earned the 3rd post in the series. Keep them coming for #4 and on, though.

The Enemies - A Tactical Guide

Volume III - Thoth

Hmmm. Come to think of it, have we ever seen Thoth and Rob Ford in the same place?

Hatshepsut of the Zulus (Spiritual, Creative, Hunting, Agriculture, Impi, Ikhanda)



Let's be honest - this is what Thoth is really thinking he's playing.

Known Knowns:

Thoth is best known for late-night drunken YouTube linkage. And kudos to him for that. He's possibly the only one who can give me a run for my money in spamming a thread, though I like to pretend more of my spam is on topic than his is. I do love the guy, I must confess. Anyway, he's mostly played FFH and for my money, is the best FFH player at the site. He combines good micro with an ability to see the big picture and execute his plans. He's only played base BTS a couple of times, most memorably taking over for the broken husk of a team that was Team 4 in PB6. He showed there he's a prickly defender. Ultimately, I think he's probably slightly lacking in BTS experience but his mechanics are strong enough that he could win the game if things broke right for him. And either way, I don't expect him to get conquered, he's way too strong a military player for that.

Hatty is sort of the queen of confused. Spiritual doesn't need creative because it wants religion and later on, can do 5t swaps into caste and run artists to pop borders. Creative doesn't need spiritual because it has no use for early religion. Still, despite the lack of synergy they're both strong traits individually. Certainly both to some extent point towards a liberal use of specialists - Creative with cheap libraries, Spiritual with cheap temples. Given Thoth's experience with FFH, I'd expect a heavier than normal use of farms anyway.

Zulu was either the best or second best civ on the board. There's zero synergy with Spi/Cre, though. Still, Ikhanda's ancillary value means we can still expect Thoth's units to be more uniformly well promoted. And I still don't want to see Impi's roaming around. Agriculture/Hunting is an okay tech set, especially if his capital is anything like ours and with the now common scout starts for everyone taking away one of Hunting's drawbacks.

Known Unknowns:

Thoth is another "how dialed in is he" kinda guy. If he's at the top of his game and feels like he has something to prove here, well, he'll be quite dangerous. If he's mostly distracted then he's pretty close to the bottom of the pile. He's also played RB mod as much as he's played BTS, if not more, so there's a question as to where his understanding of the base game is - we'll know if we get a bunch of empty trade requests looking for early map trades.

ThothAI Profile

Peace Weight: 2/10
Unit probability: 9/10
Wonders: 3/10

Flavors: Drunkeness, YouTubing

Thoth's Yearbook

Hearthstone Card He Most Reminds Me of:

Likeliness to Succeed:

Quality of Selection:

Exploitable Weakness: Plays turns drunk, accidentally sends all of his units after a squirrel.
Biggest Fear: We're the squirrel.
Pregame Prediction: 6th of 7

[Mardoc]

Anyway, he's mostly played FFH and for my money, is the best FFH player at the site. He combines good micro with an ability to see the big picture and execute his plans.

I would like to see him play against The Black Sword. And Plako could be up there too. But it's an awfully short list.

[Gaspar]

Anyway, he's mostly played FFH and for my money, is the best FFH player at the site. He combines good micro with an ability to see the big picture and execute his plans.

I would like to see him play against The Black Sword. And Plako could be up there too. But it's an awfully short list.

In fairness, I haven't actually read a FFH game in a good long while so there could be legions of new players who are way better than Thoth. But back when I did read them, he was the best.

TBS is a hell of a player from what I've read, so I don't doubt that. And plako is one of the best players on the site, period.

[Mardoc]

way better than Thoth.

I don't think so. Those two might be better - but then again they might not. I'd have to see them play. In any case I don't expect to conclude 'way better' in either direction.

Plako did manage to beat us in the FFH pitboss, but that wasn't exactly definitive given the team-nature of the game.

[Gaspar]

I can't say that Mardoc's one comment is necessarily sufficient, here. But I figure since we were talking about him already, might as well go ahead and do the preview.

The Enemies - A Tactical Guide

Volume IV - The Black Sword



I got nothing, really.

Joao of Mongolia (Expansive, Imperialistic, Hunting, The Wheel, Ger, Keshik)



In honor of Joao's #1 fan.

Known Knowns:

I still don't know a ton about TBS - I've only read the game I mentioned earlier. Its good to know your opponents but I don't really care enough to read 20 lurker threads I haven't read before. There's a reason I lurk more sporadically these days. Anyway, his performance in PBEM53 was quite impressive. It was suggested in the lurker thread for the game that he was like a Baby Mackoti and while I think that might be giving him a sliver too much credit, he's got an excellent grasp on the "What's really going on in this game?" question that so many players fail at. He identified his main rival early and made all his midgame and beyond decisions through the prism of how he would do in that competition. Its very, very easy to just try and go for everything in that position and that's how you lose. He also played the combo we're playing here excellently. We won't be able to execute that well, because the competition is stiffer, but its a pretty good blueprint for Zara nonetheless.

Joao is the spam leader. The question, as ever, is how do you pay for all the land. If you can control yourself, and use the hammers saved on workers, settlers and granaries to boost your economy and build an army, well - it can win the game. If you just can't stop spamming foodhammer units, well you're going to tank your economy, piss off your neighbors and lose the game. I personally would rather Sury or Cathy to Joao for the same purpose, because then you can get yourself to the economic techs that make early wide growth effective faster. I've said this about others but the real challenge of playing Joao is seeing if making your fast early game hold up when the others with economic traits start kicking in later on.

Mongolia has one of the best UBs in the game in the Ger, and Keshiks aren't a bad UU. The start techs are underwhelming but livable and Mongolia was definitely on our list for this game as well. The one commond thread between the leader and the civ is aggression. Joao is an aggressive leader and Mongolia is an aggressive civ. He's maybe 2nd on the list for "guys I don't want to neighbor."

Known Unknowns:

I dunno what happened in PB13, maybe someone can fill me in, but I believe he got eliminated. Mardoc's comment about him being strong in FFH leads me to believe the play I saw in PBEM53 is indicative of his skill level, though. But we can't ignore that he also had good circumstance in that game, with Azza leading another one of his forever crusades against a guy who attacked him to making it an easy decision for TBS on who to conquer. There's no question there's times during the game where he was trying to do too much - will the stronger field in this game effect him in such a way that makes him more likely to implode via indecision? That's the hope, certainly, otherwise I think he might just be the favorite here.

TheBlackSwordAI Profile

Peace Weight: 5/10
Unit probability: 7/10
Wonders: 9/10

Flavors: Indecision, Mackoti

The Black Sword's Yearbook

Hearthstone Card He Most Reminds Me of:

Likeliness to Succeed:

Quality of Selection:

Exploitable Weakness: Overextends, gets paralyzed by indecision, curls into fetal position, dies.
Biggest Fear: Overextends to our borders, has clear plan, forces us into fetal position, we die.
Pregame Prediction: 1st of 7 7th of 7 4th of 7

[Mardoc]

I dunno what happened in PB13, maybe someone can fill me in, but I believe he got eliminated.

Yep. I can think of at least two possible explanations, one of which you'll want to believe, the other of this you'll be afraid to believe. I don't think these are spoilery anymore, but to be on the safe side:

PB13 commentary:

a) He was teamed with Jowy, and Jowy had a lot of control early.
b) He was hit twice by Dtay, another strong newbie, and eventually succumbed

So...would you rather believe that he was put behind by Jowy and never managed to scrape back into contention? Or that he's brittle and can't do nearly as well reacting as he does when acting? It could be either, at least from the evidence I have.

[Gaspar]

Ah. I didn't know about A. Yeah, that's clearly the explanation. Thanks, Mardoc.