two more player "previews": ("preview" not really being a good word anymore, 62 turns into the game...)
Fenn + Wetbandit - Wang Kong (Fin/Pro) of England (Agr/Fishing/Redcoast/StockEx)
![[Image: avatar_4628.jpg?dateline=1413745053]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/uploads/avatars/avatar_4628.jpg?dateline=1413745053)
Our PB28 runaway is fielding a combo that I don't like very much. Fin England is pretty solid by itself, with Fin picking up half-priced Banks for half-priced Stock Exchanges. However, I don't like Pro very much and especially not with Fin. I think its extremely anti-synergistic. The only Pro combos that really make sense to me are Pro/Ind (Qin, Haram) and Pro/Imp (Charley, Dreylin), and I mean that in terms of all possible Pro pairings. On the surface, the Wangster would seem fairly similar to our pick of Viccy, in that you have an early expansion trait combined with Fin for economic recovery. And indeed, England is near the top of the city count charts, recently putting down their 6th city. However, they've hardly whipped, making me think their infrastructure is poor. Pro mines/camps are nice, but they shouldn't be staying your whip hand because the whip is still stronger at low city sizes. Furthermore, if you're working mines then you're not growing onto cottages. Those mines should really only be doing heavy work if you're building big junk, like wonders, for example. The biggest problem with Fin/Pro is late game. Fin is a trait that shines when you've got every goddamn tile in your empire bringing in +1c, so you want to spam cottages. Pro is perhaps the strongest late game trait, and it shines when you're in Caste, State Property, and have Factories+Coal Plants in every city. So, you want to spam workshops on every damn tile. Now, how do you put both a workshop and cottage on every tile? You can't! So, at best, you can try to specialize your cities, half for Fin, half for Pro. But then you're only using half of each trait. So what's the point?
As a player, I'm not exactly sure how to read wetbandit, which makes me nervous. I guess my impression of him is cautious competence? I've played with him in 3 games now; PB18, PB20, and now PB29. In PB18, he was in the middle of the map and had sloppy setback after sloppy setback and eventually got embroiled in Other Peoples' Drama. In PB20, he took over for Kuro and got into a decent position, which is an impressive feat in and of itself, but then dropped off heavily due to lack of planning. I think he did win PB11, and is certainly winning PB28 (a causual game) handily. That said, PB28 was sort of a perfect storm for him; the two other continents were embroiled in early war, while his two neighbors have been checked out. (yuris probably due to early setbacks, and Borsche due to putting 110% of his civ efforts into bgpb4, which is a diplo game). So, as much as it shows that he knows how to run an economy while ahead, I haven't seen him conquer anyone successfully or recover an economy. Fenn, on the other hand, is taking a little more than half the turns. He's a green whose sole game, AFAIK, is in PB28. I wasn't impressed by his play there at all.
Haram - Qin Shi Haung (Ind/Pro) of Sumeria (Agr/Wheel/Vulture/Ziggurat)
![[Image: avatar_4818.jpg?dateline=1446675028]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/uploads/avatars/avatar_4818.jpg?dateline=1446675028)
My old nemesis from PB20 is fielding quite a power-combo here. He used both traits to set up a powerhouse Pro-capital early, gaining 3fpt and 18hpt on *anything*, or 24hpt on workboats/workers and 27 hpt on wonders/forges. For reference, we gain 5fpt and 13hpt at size 5 on ordinary things, and 19hpt on settlers. While growing up to size 5, Haram claimed Stonehenge, which is extremely powerful on this map. In my sims, I've found that I end up wanting monuments in a vast majority of cities; SH will pay itself back many times by the end of the classical era, not even counting the easy shrine. Haram's civ of Sumeria is also really awesome here. Ag/Myst isn't terrible for a Pro civ, as Pro doesn't need the whip as urgently, while his uniques are perfect. As I've said before, the map dimensions in PB29 are small and so maintenance is pretty high. Easy courthouses at Priesthood let him Oracle MC for quick forges (amazing here with 3 sources of metal happy) without tanking his economy. In hindsight, with knowledge of the map, I think he has best picks of all 9 players in PB29. (IMHO ours is still pretty close to the top though)
As a player, I consider Haram to be extremely dangerous, probably in the top 5%-10% of players at this site. In PB20, I made the mistake of assuming that, as a new player here, like myself, he would be quite green, and thus wouldn't be able to defend against a hard rush. However, I couldn't have been more wrong. (If only he had been swapped to HAK's place, sigh
) First of all, even though he hasn't played many games at RB, he's a big veteran at, IIRC, some Polish civ forum. I have no idea how many games Haram has played there, but a.) their games use a special modded version of civ4 to enable 20-30 player games, and b.) they're up to "Dyplo 11", for which Haram himself was the mapmaker. (I helped him use my civ4mapcad tool to make the 25 player map, and he in turn patiently helped me find some bugs in the tool before we used it to make the PB27 map). At any rate, it was very clear to me in PB20 that his micro was extremely tight and very clever, and that he was much more experienced than I was in MP. (maybe not anymore though, this is my 8th PB game). My rush was unsuccessful but still set him behind significantly, and yet he was still able to catch up to the leaders, for the most part, despite fighting nonstop and getting very little spoils in war. Haram being my neighbor here, and already grabbing two key wonders while still keeping up with expansion, is very worrisome.
Fenn + Wetbandit - Wang Kong (Fin/Pro) of England (Agr/Fishing/Redcoast/StockEx)
Our PB28 runaway is fielding a combo that I don't like very much. Fin England is pretty solid by itself, with Fin picking up half-priced Banks for half-priced Stock Exchanges. However, I don't like Pro very much and especially not with Fin. I think its extremely anti-synergistic. The only Pro combos that really make sense to me are Pro/Ind (Qin, Haram) and Pro/Imp (Charley, Dreylin), and I mean that in terms of all possible Pro pairings. On the surface, the Wangster would seem fairly similar to our pick of Viccy, in that you have an early expansion trait combined with Fin for economic recovery. And indeed, England is near the top of the city count charts, recently putting down their 6th city. However, they've hardly whipped, making me think their infrastructure is poor. Pro mines/camps are nice, but they shouldn't be staying your whip hand because the whip is still stronger at low city sizes. Furthermore, if you're working mines then you're not growing onto cottages. Those mines should really only be doing heavy work if you're building big junk, like wonders, for example. The biggest problem with Fin/Pro is late game. Fin is a trait that shines when you've got every goddamn tile in your empire bringing in +1c, so you want to spam cottages. Pro is perhaps the strongest late game trait, and it shines when you're in Caste, State Property, and have Factories+Coal Plants in every city. So, you want to spam workshops on every damn tile. Now, how do you put both a workshop and cottage on every tile? You can't! So, at best, you can try to specialize your cities, half for Fin, half for Pro. But then you're only using half of each trait. So what's the point?
As a player, I'm not exactly sure how to read wetbandit, which makes me nervous. I guess my impression of him is cautious competence? I've played with him in 3 games now; PB18, PB20, and now PB29. In PB18, he was in the middle of the map and had sloppy setback after sloppy setback and eventually got embroiled in Other Peoples' Drama. In PB20, he took over for Kuro and got into a decent position, which is an impressive feat in and of itself, but then dropped off heavily due to lack of planning. I think he did win PB11, and is certainly winning PB28 (a causual game) handily. That said, PB28 was sort of a perfect storm for him; the two other continents were embroiled in early war, while his two neighbors have been checked out. (yuris probably due to early setbacks, and Borsche due to putting 110% of his civ efforts into bgpb4, which is a diplo game). So, as much as it shows that he knows how to run an economy while ahead, I haven't seen him conquer anyone successfully or recover an economy. Fenn, on the other hand, is taking a little more than half the turns. He's a green whose sole game, AFAIK, is in PB28. I wasn't impressed by his play there at all.
Haram - Qin Shi Haung (Ind/Pro) of Sumeria (Agr/Wheel/Vulture/Ziggurat)
My old nemesis from PB20 is fielding quite a power-combo here. He used both traits to set up a powerhouse Pro-capital early, gaining 3fpt and 18hpt on *anything*, or 24hpt on workboats/workers and 27 hpt on wonders/forges. For reference, we gain 5fpt and 13hpt at size 5 on ordinary things, and 19hpt on settlers. While growing up to size 5, Haram claimed Stonehenge, which is extremely powerful on this map. In my sims, I've found that I end up wanting monuments in a vast majority of cities; SH will pay itself back many times by the end of the classical era, not even counting the easy shrine. Haram's civ of Sumeria is also really awesome here. Ag/Myst isn't terrible for a Pro civ, as Pro doesn't need the whip as urgently, while his uniques are perfect. As I've said before, the map dimensions in PB29 are small and so maintenance is pretty high. Easy courthouses at Priesthood let him Oracle MC for quick forges (amazing here with 3 sources of metal happy) without tanking his economy. In hindsight, with knowledge of the map, I think he has best picks of all 9 players in PB29. (IMHO ours is still pretty close to the top though)
As a player, I consider Haram to be extremely dangerous, probably in the top 5%-10% of players at this site. In PB20, I made the mistake of assuming that, as a new player here, like myself, he would be quite green, and thus wouldn't be able to defend against a hard rush. However, I couldn't have been more wrong. (If only he had been swapped to HAK's place, sigh
) First of all, even though he hasn't played many games at RB, he's a big veteran at, IIRC, some Polish civ forum. I have no idea how many games Haram has played there, but a.) their games use a special modded version of civ4 to enable 20-30 player games, and b.) they're up to "Dyplo 11", for which Haram himself was the mapmaker. (I helped him use my civ4mapcad tool to make the 25 player map, and he in turn patiently helped me find some bugs in the tool before we used it to make the PB27 map). At any rate, it was very clear to me in PB20 that his micro was extremely tight and very clever, and that he was much more experienced than I was in MP. (maybe not anymore though, this is my 8th PB game). My rush was unsuccessful but still set him behind significantly, and yet he was still able to catch up to the leaders, for the most part, despite fighting nonstop and getting very little spoils in war. Haram being my neighbor here, and already grabbing two key wonders while still keeping up with expansion, is very worrisome.
![[Image: hoD4tj1.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/hoD4tj1.gif)
) The plan for JLH is to be a workhorse city, able to single-handedly supply this island with settlers, workers, and skirmishers once its got a Granary and some improvements online. This is so our capital, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th city can concentrate on getting infrastructure and hamlets up; later, JLH will work cottages too.
But, I think its just because we have a ton of pop points and we're currently building a bunch of workers and settlers right now, for which mines are fine. All of these tiles, other than the silver, are swapped around quite heavily, so that we only work them in cities that are building a foodhammer unit, and rarely need to idle them during regrowth periods. Our only "hammer tiles" for our 2nd place MFG are the 3 grasshill mines, the copper mine, the plainshill silver, and the plainsforest ivory - 21 hammers for 6 tiles out of 19 pop. Then 8 hammers from city centers, and the rest are stuff like the grasscows, the deer, etc. Does anyone care about this? Probably not! Why am I even bothering to write it? Well, whatever! There you go! Confessions of a mine worker! 
I guess its an American cultural thing, maybe even specific to the midwest, I dunno.