[SPOILERS] Serdoa, Ichabod and Ex-Girlfriends - co-starring NH,Bigger and Lewwyn

[Serdoa]

Well, I think that for IMP to shine what you really want is to take as much land as possible as quickly as possible. To finance that you build cottages like everywhere. But most importantly you need to grow your cities. If you expand to 10 cities quickly but all are size 3 or 4 it isn't enough to keep you afloat. And my feel after PBEM47 was that with Joao you are able to actually get your cities going with just a chop into the Granary, what is most likely possible in every city. Additionally you can get the workers needed for all those cities easier as well. It synergizes greatly.

With Victoria on the other hand you can settle the land quickly as well. But now you need to grow your cities. A Granary would be good. But you have to invest 2 mathchops or 3 non-mathchops into it. Or you whip it at size 2. But that means losing around 6 turns, taking part of your FIN-advantage from the cottages away. And then you have to invest again more resources to build the workers necessary to even improve your cities. But building normal cost workers and Granaries also means that your expansion is slower, again delaying working those cottages (and working less).

I think Victoria could be great for a team-game. But in a FFA I feel that her traits are just not working well enough together. If you can pull it off it will be a late-game dream though. More land than the others and cottages everywhere, making your economy much stronger than everyone elses. But if you get your priorities mixed up you might very well just sit their either broke or with just not enough land grabbed that IMP really made the difference.

[Serdoa]

First stab at micro indicates a Worker -> Worker -> Settler opening, starting with Agri and Mining. That would net us the settler at T26, not counting any bonuses via EXP or IMP. With that it can be done till T23. No defense though. Most likely we will need a warrior at least, so that does delay us quite a bit. And of course without any scouting it is hard if a fast settler makes even that much sense. I assume it does though as we seem to have a few floodplains up north. South there seems to be Tundra though. Maybe this time I'm not in the middle of the map?

[Ichabod]

Reporting for duty after Mother's day delay.

I didn't want to clutter the planning thread with my spam, so I waited for the thread to be made. I actually really liked the naming scheme and thread title, it'll be great fun. Unfortunately, I never had a girlfriend (so, no ex-girlfriends either), so I can't help that much with ideas. Of course, if we make the theme a little more open and allow "not so serious relationships that ended", I could help with some names.

I was thinking of a naming scheme based on the names of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, since I'm reading them right now. But I like your idea better.

Regarding picks, I think you should pick what you find fun to play, since you're the main player. I think Civ pick will be pretty important here, due to annoying coastal start. We can make a play for a quick granary and use the avoid growth trick to quickly grow to max size. That would work well with expansive + a fishing/mining/agri start (depending on if we want WB first or not). Timings may not work, though, due to needing loads of tech for a quick granary (pottery, BW and so on). But if you want a fast settler, maybe it can be made afterwards.

João seems like a nice pick, I think. Two unforested plains hill are pretty nice with IMP, even allowing us to delay BW for a bit. This enables early pottery, which is nice for EXP.

Scout moves 1S? 2S of settler may be a resource and I think that's the most imporatnt information to decide if a move is worthwile. That corn seems strange there, like if it was added to the start, so maybe fish was our only food and 2S is either cow or a hidden resource. 1N, 1NW is the only move I'd consider, but that is awfully risky.

I'll comment more later.

[Ichabod]

Another good point for João is that our Capital will be pretty bad for cottages, so FIN trait gets a bit nerfed. On the other hand, I think this capital allows us to get a civ like Byzantium. Though Wheel/Myst sucks, I think we can do a lot with this capital with just agri + mining. Well, not really sure about that, but maybe it's something to consider (like if you want to go for worker/worker/settler opening).

Edit: A myst start is better in these settings too, since religions are more valuable in games with way more players. In my opinion, at least.

[Ichabod]

Jowy picked Mansa Musa.

Slowcheetah picked Sury.

Dazed picked Victoria.

Gavagai picked Lizzie.

Kurumi needs to pick than it's our turn. So, we got at least Darius or João. If we want a "ex-girlfiend" thematic leader, we could go for Isabella or Catherine, though. Or Boudicca.

[NobleHelium]

Pick Darius and I'll lurk you guys.

[Krill]

Well that makes it an easy choice. What civs go well with Joao if Inca are banned?

[NobleHelium]

And here I was going to say that I wouldn't blame the mapmaker because you're not Commodore.

[Ichabod]

I think João would be more fun to play, but Darius is probably better.

[NobleHelium]

Joao is weaker on Normal speed. You survived without Slavery in 47 with Joao because you were able to 2 or 3 turn workers and settlers due to Quick. That's not going to happen on Normal.