[SPOILERS] Season 4: All Men Must Die

[dtay]

4th game, 4th season of game of thrones, have at it.

Naming scheme: Swords from A Song of Ice and Fire. Then after those run out some equally obscure list (perhaps members of the Kingsguard) from ASOIF.

Picking thoughts:
Not sure of the exact banlist (it might be out there, just not paying super close attention), but if the the banlist of "All financial except Wang Kong" and "Better Exp" is accurate, Org/Cre is looking pretty good. Or Exp/? depending on how deep the Exp bans are. Probably not going ot go Fin/Pro, fin is great, probably 1.5 traits, but it isn't worth 2 (real) traits.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Your start:




For the night is dark, and full of terrors!

[dtay]

Your start:




For the night is dark, and full of terrors!

but the fire burns them all away!

Food for 3 land-food techs. No fishing-food. So tech wise I can be pretty flexible (hunting isn't horrible). Question is do I prioritize wheel/ag techs for earlier pottery or mining for earlier bronze... I've had early bronze working in all my previous games at RB (starting with mining in all 3), so I'm in a bit of a habit at the moment.

Leader wise, I'm really liking Cre/Org Zara. Ind/Org Roosevelt is also attractive. Pattern being, in a world where financial is all but banned (though Wang Kong isn't horrible, he'll probably be in my top 10) Org becomes a really significant economic advantage.

Joao (Exp/Imp) is pretty strong as well, super fast expansion unto total economy crash.

Asoka (Org/Spi) is interesting. Makes Code of Laws a clear tech beeline for the religion, the temples at priesthood, and courthouses.

Those are my thoughts for now, don't have a full list yet (and haven't thought a ton about civs).

[dtay]

Leader pick list:

Zara of Holy Roman Empire
Roosevelt of Mali
Catherine of Zulu
Roosevelt of Aztecs
Catherine of Babylon
Shaka of Zulu
Joao of Persia
Asoka of Aztecs
Wang Kong of Zulu
Wang Kong of Persia


Reasonably odd ball in places. There are weird incentives with the leader/civ simul pick. If I really want a particularly leader I have an incentive to pick a slightly offbeat civilization to increase the odds I get them.

I really like Zara, but I bet everyone does. I only put him on their once because I can't see him not being in other people's top spot, so if I don't get him he was almost certainly taken by someone else. It's possible both I and other-zara-picker lose civ conflicts and zara lasts beyond rd1, but seems unlikely.

I bet there's a pretty high chance if I miss Zara I get Roosevelt of Mali. Pretty oddball, but seems fun to play.

[dtay]

Yepp, got Roosevelt. Lost the roll for Zara.

I'm happy with my consolation prize though. My start will be pretty slow but midgame should be strong. Forges and Courthouses are imo the two buildings that are really really damn good but often a giant pain to build b/c of how expensive they are. Having both be cheap will be nice. Also mints are cool, you wouldn't really care about a +10% gold on a building of mediocre inherent worth, but Ind Forges are a building you want to spam everywhere anyway.

Things to keep in mind, religion? And oracle? Oracling metal casting could be a strong play here, but oracle is often a trap if it trades off with expansion. Religion isn't as uber as PB13/18 where the huge map size makes shrines godly, but should still be pretty good here + not being cre means I need to pop borders somehow.

[dtay]

Thoughts on the game:


Opponents:
I won't pretend to know everyone well enough to be able to really analyze them in depth. Well, I know a lot about my constant-rival TBS, present in all 4 of my games lol. I got the best of him in PB13, but it came down to some lucky rolls in early ancient warfare and then 1 critical mistake of TBS in the 2nd war. And then (PBEM53 spoilers)

TBS just gave me a solid beating in 53. I'm probably about to concede that one. Given the much more "h2h"-ish nature of that conflict compared to the massive PB13, I think this gives TBS the lead in our rivalry

Beyond that, I don't have a ton to add beyond everyone in this game seems pretty tightly banded skill-wise and are all very good. It'll be tough to place well, yet alone win in this field.

Myself:
Commodore made the comment that PBEM53 seemed like "Mackoti 2.0 vs. Sullla 2.0" (TBS being Mack, I Sulla) (In no way am I saying I have skill equivalent to either of those two, or that those two are equivalent, or anything beyond a playstyle difference) . Based on that game and PB13, I think I need a bit more of the Mackoti in me. Too much focus on Liberalism, not enough two-movers early, basically no building of horse archers, these are all what I'd term "Single player" errors. I mentioned a fair bit of this in my PB18 opening posts, but since no one can really read those, it bears repeating.

Now how this matches up with my "wonder-spec" leader, not sure. Wonders are obviously great. In fact (more PBEM53 spoilers)

TBS managed to keep up with my fin-cottage economy by choice builds of The Great Lighthouse and the Pyramids, allowing him to keep up with me economically while being at a pretty large population and raw-commerce disadvantage for the middle 2 quarters of the game. He then of course leveraged his roughly-equal-in-the-end economic capacity into a much better tech strategy and then military gains of course, but my point is that I shouldn't just abandon wonders and fancy toys, but rather I need to keep in mind they are merely tools to an end, an end that is almost always military in nature.

To Dhal and BaII: Sorry about all the PBEM53 spoiler-tags lol.

Start analysis:
Ag-Hunting-AH seems like the obvious set of techs to start. Possibly switch AH for Bronze, I'll see how it works out. But I think it's those three first, then bronze/pottery in some order. Don't think early religion is the smart play, if one is sitting around after all that I might shoot for one, but I doubt it.

Wonders to maybe aim for:
Oracle
The Great Lighthouse
Pyramids

The 1st and 3rd are more appropriate to my particular leader, the 2nd is great if there is at all significant amounts of water. Oracle->MC bulb, always pretty. TGL, just good. Pyramids goes great with my (and everyone's) lack of financial to run a partially specialist economy. Ind helps with building all of these obvious, Org helps with Lighthouses. My capital isn't coastal however, so not sure how early a beeline I can make for that.

Techwise, none of these obviously fit into the opening set I gave above. But I realistically can't make any specific wonder plans until I know 2nd/3rd/4th? city sites and such.

Commodore is the only other Ind leader though, and I bet psychologically the rest of the field doesn't try as hard b/c of Commodore/I's inherent advantage.

[Ceiliazul]

"Need a little more Mackoti in me", don't we all!

Good analysis of the implications of Commodore's comment. I agree with his comment and your conclusions, and look forward to seeing new tricks.

Good Luck!

[novice]

Need a little more Mackoti in me

That's what she said.

[Ceiliazul]

<groan>

[dtay]

Game start!

Every logical start opens with agriculture, so that's tech#1.

Decided to switch up the name-scheme, going with super smash bros characters. Capital city: Marth.

I took/meant to post screenshots but imgur is being uncooperative in letting me upload them