[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[Catwalk]

Elizabeth of England it is

It looks like the Holy Roman Empire will come all the way back to Zanth. If so, I think that gives him the strongest combo of all. Double construction speed on a building that gives -75% upkeep on a toroidal map is powerful. Hunting and Mysticism are awful starting techs, but if he also has game somewhere nearby it's not so bad. So far noone has taken a Mysticism civ, that would give him a clear lead on an early religion.

I was almost considering taking HRE just for denial, before realizing that would be retarded. I really hope flugauto will do that, though. Arguably, with a Spiritual leader he's a little better off with Mysticism as a starting tech as he gains more from grabbing an early religion. I bet Jowy will play it safe with Ottomans (surprising that it's available as the third last pick out of 12!), which doesn't leave much of anything for flugauto.

And now I see that Jowy took Zulu... that was highly surprising. The Ikhanda isn't that great for non-AGG leaders. That means zanth will have a great combo available to him, FIN/ORG with either Ottomans or HRE. I'm still very happy with my own, though.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I completely forgot that I need to come up with a naming scheme. I feel this is the area of the game that I have the best grasp of, so I need to come up with something good. I'm 90% certain it'll be marriage related again.

If your naming scheme is like in 29 you'll win the thread.

[Catwalk]

I started ranking all the picks made, then realized that I was far too lazy for such a task. I feel that flugauto got a good pick with FIN/SPI + Ottomans, yuris got a good pick with EXP/CRE + France and I got a good pick with FIN/PHI + England.

However, I just realized that my starting techs kind of suck. I'm not real keen on a coastal settlement, which makes early worker micro difficult. I see these options:
1) SIP WB first = growth t7 and WB t9, bonus commerce
2) SIP worker first = worker t10, bonus commerce
3) Settle on PH worker first = worker t9

And my brain is hurting already. My instincts tell me it's unlikely there are hidden resources in the 3 dark tiles to the east, but if there is then SIP could very well be the best play. If nothing out of the ordinary shows up, I feel quite certain that the deer is worth going for.

With the PH spot, I can either go Agriculture + Hunting with a warrior after the worker to grow, or tech BW right away and probably chop a settler. I feel that the second option is best, and I feel more inclined to go for the first one I suck at slavery, chopping and general micro anyway, and if I do a half-assed early job of them I may be worse off than if I simply delay them.

Tentative plan:
1) Settle PH
2) Worker => Warrior => Settler
3) Hunting => Agriculture => Bronze Working (Hunting first gives me 1t faster worker micro moving from one resource to the other)

[Catwalk]

Expanded on the PH plan a little more:
t1 move
t2 settle = f2h3
t5 border pop = f3h3
t9 worker => warrior
t10 start camping deer
t12 deer camp done = f5h3
t13 grow = f5h4, warrior done with 2h overflow => settler
t14 start farming wheat
t17 wheat farm done = f8h4, 38h on settler
t20 settler done =>


The micro works out nicely, getting the warrior same turn as I grow. I need to figure out what the worker does after farming the wheat, I doubt I'd be able to have BW done by then. I'm going to sneak a peak at threads in other games and see how long early techs take, I have no idea.

[Catwalk]

Just tried a mini sandbox run (just put down the right resources for reasonable comparison), and my micro stinks. I'll lose several worker turns whether I go for both Agriculture and Hunting before BW or just one of them. Also, I failed to take hammer overflow from the worker into account... whoops.

New plan: Worker => Settler => Warrior x3 (lets me grow to size 3 when the last warrior finishes)

Noone starts with a warrior, and my scout just might reveal enough land to let me know where to make my first expansion. Am I reverting into farmer's gambit thinking so soon? Yeah, probably.

[Catwalk]

I'm talking myself into the Fishing start instead. Having to research Hunting delays BW and Pottery, and I'll be wasting several worker turns with the PH start. That, combined with wasting a turn moving to the PH, pretty much offsets the early advantages of the PH + deer hammers. And if I leave the fish for later, I won't have a site that can get a work boat ready ahead of time. Conversely, with a border pop on t25 I can get the deer ready ahead of time.

Rough idea of tech plan:
Agriculture => Bronze Working => Wheel => Pottery => Hunting => Animal Husbandry => Writing => Mathematics => Currency

That bypasses early religions and most early wonders (Stonehenge, Oracle, Lighthouse, Pyramids), which is basically what I'm planning on already. I can see myself making a play for Colossus, it combines nicely with FIN to let me use water tiles for good effect on what will probably be a modest scrap of land. I'd probably have to go for Metal Casting before Currency if I want to do that, though. If I land the Colossus, I might go for two early GPs with a mix of engineer, scientist and merchant points. A scientist would be used for an academy, an engineer would be used for a wonder (maybe Mausoleum or Great Library) and a merchant would probably be sent on a safe trading mission if possible. Without the Colossus plan, just go for straight up scientists and spawn two for academy + settled scientist in the capital.

[Catwalk]

My micro is getting weirder by the minute. Now I've talked myself into building a work boat first, then whipping out my first worker. With a Fishing/Mining start, that just might work out. I don't have a crucial 3 food tile, but the 2/1/1 should do a decent job. Preliminary results suggest it's superior, I'll get nets on t11 and a wheat farm on t18 (already in Slavery) as opposed to a farm on t13 and nets on t19 (not yet in Slavery).

[Catwalk]

Final early micro plan - now polishing from this point on

t1:
Settle in place, work wheat
Build work boat
Research Bronze Working

t7:
Grow, work fish

t10:
Finish Bronze Working
Research Agriculture
Complete work boat, sail to fish
Build Worker
Revolt to slavery

t11:
Net fish
Work fish and wheat

t14:
Whip worker, settler next

t15:
Finish Agriculture
Research The Wheel?
Build farm
Switch to warrior

t17:
Grow

[BRickAstley]

No, you want weird micro? Open with a monument.

[Catwalk]

What's not to like about monument first? You get your second border pop on t20 instead of t25! Amazing scouting potential there, and helps protect you against an early artist bomb.

I just realized a few things about the combos picked:
1) Not a single CHA leader. I'm surprised noone wanted Hannibal, I think he holds up nicely in comparison with the bottom half the chosen leaders. This might make Stonehenge slightly less popular.
2) Only two CRE leaders. This will likely make religions and Stonehenge more popular, as a bunch of players will be needing Mysticism early on.
3) Not a single civ with Mysticism. If there had been even one civ with Mysticism (such as Darius of HRE) then I think everybody else would shy away from early religions. As is, and considering the CRE shortage, I think many will be tempted to make a dash for the 3 early religions. I'll stay away from them and hope to solve early borders with good scouting, good dot mapping and lots of settlers.
4) As already mentioned earlier, IND was popular. 2metraninja picked the 4th and last IND leader, suggesting that he's very keen on getting wonders as he knew he'd be facing stiff competition for them. Other than semi-considering Colossus and any available failgold, I'm still planning on staying away from wonders. I might want to pick up some of the junk wonders if I have the right boosters, if I get the wrong great people I just might stack them all in my capital and get a super city with bureaucracy + Representation + Globe Theatre. No idea how good this plan is in the real world, but it sounds cute and doable with FIN/PHI. It would also mean that any city losses or concessions hurt me less, since much of my economy is stashed away in the centre.