Fierce's PBEM 23 Strategy Thread

[Fierce]

Welcome!

Hopefully this turns out to be a thread following some successful play, but at the very least it will be something to learn from. I will try to keep semi-regular updates in here (at least once a week) but I work a lot so just hold tight if the posts get a bit slow.

Any Lurkers are welcome to say Hi! And I will post some snake pick leader/civ rankings later tonight.

[Commodore]

Your start (everyone gets a scout and warrior):



The settings:



Snake pick away!

[Fierce]

Thank you very much sir, pleasure doing business

Starting location and snake pick thoughts coming up shortly

[Fierce]

1) luddite / pindicator
2) mackoti
3) novice / spacemanmf / sevenspirits
4) sian / ichabod
5) fierce
6) yuris (+ nicolae carpathia)


Well, I am pretty far down the snake pick list so that might be annoying. But with no FIN leaders I think the picks will be much more diverse than usual. Definitely a lot more tailoring to play styles than the usual, take FIN and whatever the next best thing is.

As far as my strengths go, I can't say I really have any So my leader list is just avoiding my weaknesses. So no PHI or IND leaders for me. I have never been good at maximizing GPPs, and I am not a huge wonder guy as I tend to play from behind a lot of my games.

My top two leaders picks are:
Cyrus- IMP, CHA
George Washington- EXP, CHA

Hopefully one of these falls to the bottom. I like Cyrus because IMP helps get out those settlers faster, and CHA adds that extra happy to get those cities just a little bit bigger. Plus they have the nice military synergy if that route is taken, faster GG's and less EXP needed for promotions.

Washington is nice because of the already stated CHA reasons above, and faster Granary and worker production which are two things every civ needs.

Past those two, if it comes to it, I am really at a tossup out of these:
Genghis Khan- AGG, IMP
Joao II- IMP, EXP
Shaka- AGG, EXP

Adding in AGG to the list and mixing it up with traits I already like. Also a possibility of Catherine should everyone start taking Creative leaders and I need the trait to keep up. I would imagine I'll get one of them so hopefully no more thought on the subject is needed


For civilizations and picking your UU, UB, and starting traits it is a bit more to sift through when picking. Also will need to wait to decide for sure until after I get my leader picked to make sure they match up. But luckily that will be soon, I should have one of the top Civ picks in the snake.

So my Civ picks in no particular order are:
Byzantium
Egypt
Greece
HRE
Rome

I would imagine that I won't even think about narrowing this down until I see what the rest of the leaders, and what the civ pick is before me.



As far as the starts, Commodore said this would not be our exact start, just something close? So no reason to start breaking it down too much. Can't wait for the game to begin, I'll post my thoughts on the other teams picks once we get through the draft.

[Fierce]

Cyrus of the Holy Roman Empire! Well I think I have a pretty good pair of picks, but we'll find out soon enough. Imperialistic and Charismatic leader along with Landsknecht(sp?) and the Rathaus. So I have a bit of focus on military, and a bit of focus on the economic and expansion side. I believe a larger map would definitely suit my picks, so hopefully there is some space to expand to. I'll have to be sure and work on getting out those cities nice and quick, especially when Code of Laws comes around. My UU should also provide some defense in it's age at least until we get to the Gunpowder tech.

Overall I'd say my initial strategy will be to try and out expand my neighbors, then hole up and out tech them once my civ comes around in vertical growth after the quick horizontal. Of course I'll have to wait and see how things play out, so nothing is for certain yet. I'll post more once we get our starts and everyone has made picks.

[Kuro]

I'm going to have to wait and see how you update/how often, but the Cyrus of HRE pick and you being new makes me wanna dedlurk you.

[Fierce]

I'm going to have to wait and see how you update/how often, but the Cyrus of HRE pick and you being new makes me wanna dedlurk you.

Haha well I plan on trying to get in a post everyday, at least in the early game. Hoping to keep it often so I have a record to look back on. Excited for the start!

[Kuro]

Since it is a bit of a tradition to post it once selections are done: What do you think of your opponent's choices?

[Fierce]

Well I don't know much about each of the players so I will just post thoughts on Civ/leader combos. For whoever reads this, note that these are MY opinions, so they may certainly be differing values from what you prefer, but we are all entitled to our own.

1) luddite / pindicator: Suryavarman of Zulu

Suryavarman is a really good choice with Expansive and Creative, two traits I thought were going to be big picks for this game. Zulu I have never actually played as, but the Impi and Ikhanda seem to be a good UU and UB pair. Though an AGG leader for half price on the Ikhanda would have made more sense I think, but still I am sure they will be someone to watch for.

2) mackoti: Pericles of Greece

Pericles isn't a leader I value too much, with Philosophical and Creative, but it is starting to look like Creative will be necessary to win border disputes in this game. I also know PHI is very powerful, I personally just never leverage it well. Greece is the standard for Pericles, I guess he really just likes that Civ/leader pair. Phalanx is a solid unit, takes away the axe's weakness so I hope I don't have to fight them early on just for the sake of they are a pain to take on without superior tech. And the Odeon is a good building, not spectacular but good.

3) novice / spacemanmf / sevenspirits: Isabella of Egypt

Isabella has Expansive and Spiritual, decent traits but not a pair I would have put with Egypt's War Chariots. Those are a unit that you can run over some early competition with, AGG might have helped if they plan on early war. Who knows, maybe they plan to use their UU to help wall themselves up and tech ahead like me.

4) sian / ichabod: Hatshepsut of Ottoman

A good pair here, I really like Hatty, and the Ottoman's I figured would be taken in the game. Janissary really lets you run over older units if you get gunpowder just a little early, and the Hammam is a good building to get a city up a few sizes if you have the hammers to spare.

5) fierce: Cyrus of HRE

Flawless, just flawless haha But seriously, I am happy with my picks here. I might have taken Byzantium but I am just as content with HRE

6) yuris (+ nicolae carpathia): Louis of Byzantium

Creative again! I guess the couple non-CRE civ's will just have to fight for stonehenge or something like that to keep up in the game. But the only Industrious leader here means that he definitely has a large leg up on any wonders he wants. I was kind of thinking we would go without and just be on even ground but there is always that one guy Hopefully the lack of military or economic traits will put him behind enough that the wonders won't matter.



But that is at least a quick write up on everyone, I'll have to study them once we get in game and see what I can learn about play styles and how they are going about this game.

[Fierce]

Turn one passed, here are the game settings for reference:




And here is my start with my starting scout and warrior moved:



I plan on sending my scout away from the start to try and see how much distance I have from my neighbors, and keep my warrior in a sort of tight spiral to stay around for defense.

And I decided to settle in place to stay on the coast and not have the crappy desert hill wasted away. Have some floodplains and rivers, along with the ability to put a lighthouse on the coast so it should be a fine capital. Here is a shot of that: