[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Bobchillingworth]

This thread is pretty great

[Lord Parkin]

Parkin

Thanks Krill.

Hmm, decent start, I think 1 less food than average for Torusland but still fine. (I got quite a few 6/5 starts on my trial map generations.) Animal Husbandry is obviously the critical tech, so I probably want either Hunting or Agriculture to start with (or both) despite their low beaker cost. Hunting is a bit more interesting with the +1 Scout movement, so maybe that will work.

A marble tile to the south which would have been great under my Settler... if I start with Hunting I can explore that tile before settling, though I doubt there'll be good enough reason to move the capital. It might make a great future city site anyway.

Coastal, so there's a good chance everyone else is coastal too. Easy enough to check in the Demographics once we get going. Looks like this will definitely be a map where naval warfare is relevant.

[Lord Parkin]

Brilliant player analysis

Why thank you.

This thread is pretty great

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it.

I wonder if anyone recognizes all of the games referenced so far. I've played all but one of them myself, most as a young whippersnapper.

[Lord Parkin]

Here is the pick order: courtesy of Random.org:

1. GermanJojo
2. Kuro/Wetbandit
3. Gawdzak
4. Douglas Quaid
5. slowcheetah
6. Gavagai
7. SevenSpirits
8. Mackoti
9. Haram
10. HitAnyKey
11. Lord Parkin
12. Lord Parkin
13. HitAnyKey
14. Haram
15. Mackoti
16. SevenSpirits
17. Gavagai
18. slowcheetah
19. Douglas Quaid
20. Gawdzak
21. Kuro/Wetbandit
22. GermanJojo

Darn, was hoping to be a bit further up the list. Most of the interesting combinations with the new traits will probably be gone by the time I get to pick. I guess at least I should get first pick of starting techs paired with a decent civ.

[Lord Parkin]

Hmm, with 100 by 36 tiles the map is roughly 3:1 or 6:2, which approximately matches 11 players. So the civ(s) above each player are likely to be the same as the civ(s) below. Add one civ to the left and one to the right, and that implies everyone should have 3-4 different neighbours and 4-6 different borders.

[Lord Parkin]

PRO leaders:

Saladin (SPI)
Mao Zedong (EXP)
Qin Shi Huang (IND)
Churchill (CHA)
Charlemagne (IMP)
Tokugawa (AGR)
Wang Kon (FIN)
Sitting Bull (PHI)
Gilgamesh (CRE)

Of those, several probably won't be available at the 11th pick. Tokugawa for certain; probably Wang Kon, Qin, and Gilgamesh as well; maybe also Mao and Charlemagne. If all those leaders are taken, that doesn't leave a lot to work with for PRO.

AGR leaders:

Montezuma (SPI)
Hammurabi (ORG)
Boudica (CHA)
Alexander (PHI)
Tokugawa (PRO)
Genghis Khan (IMP)
Kublai Khan (CRE)
Stalin (IND)
Ragnar (FIN)
Shaka (EXP)

Again, Tokugawa won't be available at the 11th pick and neither will Boudica. Other leaders likely to be snapped up are Ragnar and possibly Alex; Genghis and Kublai could be gone as well. So probably not many options for AGR either.

Well, no point in making plans at this point... we'll just have to wait and see what dregs are left when the snake pick comes around to us.

[Lord Parkin]

Parkin

Alright, so this start is rather limited in options.

Critical techs:
Animal Husbandry (prereq Agriculture/Hunting)
Mining
Bronze Working

Important techs:
Pottery (prereq Wheel + Fishing/Agriculture)

Future city techs:
Masonry (optional prereq Mysticism)
Agriculture
Fishing
Wheel

Clearly Animal Husbandry will have to be our first tech out of the gate, so we have to start with at least one out of Agriculture/Hunting. Agriculture does squat for us while Hunting at least gets us a faster Scout, so Hunting is ahead of Agriculture in priority. Having both Agriculture and Hunting gets us bonus beakers on AH, but the lost beakers from starting with the two cheapest techs works out to be almost identical to starting with Hunting/Mining and researching AH directly followed by Agriculture later (~1 beaker difference).

Hunting civs:

Persia (Agriculture)
Zulu (Agriculture)
Greece (Fishing)
Viking (Fishing)
Ethiopia (Mining)
Germany (Mining)
Khmer (Mining)
Russia (Mining)
Aztecs (Mysticism)
Celts (Mysticism)
Holy Rome (Mysticism)
Mongolia (The Wheel)

We can strike down the Fishing civs immediately, so Greece and Vikings are out. Shame, as the Vikings would probably be quite good on a 44% water map, but this livestock-only start leaves us pretty constricted in terms of civs that won't be painfully slow to get going. The Mysticism civs are out for the same reason, so knock off Aztecs and Celts (not really much of a loss there) and Holy Rome. Mongolia should probably go too, as starting with The Wheel won't do anything but delay us in the opening turns.

So that leaves quite a small pool of viable choices for an optimal start:

Hunting/Agriculture - Persia, Zulu
Hunting/Mining - Ethiopia, Germany, Khmer, Russia

Of those I'd be most interested to play either Germany or Russia. I'd be least interested to play Persia, but really any of the six would be better than most of the alternatives with this start. Bit of a shame the good options are so narrow, but at least with last place in the snake pick I shouldn't have trouble getting a civ with the right techs to make the most of this somewhat awkward start.

[Lord Parkin]

1. GermanJojo = Khmer
2. Kuro/Wetbandit
3. Gawdzak
4. Douglas Quaid
5. slowcheetah
6. Gavagai
7. SevenSpirits
8. Mackoti
9. Haram
10. HitAnyKey
11. Lord Parkin
12. Lord Parkin
13. HitAnyKey
14. Haram
15. Mackoti
16. SevenSpirits
17. Gavagai
18. slowcheetah
19. Douglas Quaid
20. Gawdzak
21. Kuro/Wetbandit
22. GermanJojo

GermanJojo with his first pick takes... Khmer? Well, I guess he's genuinely a new player if he's giving up the chance to take first choice of traits in an 11-player game to claim an average civ. Perhaps he has an all-livestock start too - but even if so I'm surprised he'd pick Khmer out of the options available. Maybe he saw Ivory in his screenshot? I don't know.

Oh well, the upshot is that there'll be one more trait combo available when my turn eventually comes around.

[Lord Parkin]

Prediction: Kuro takes Tokugawa.

[Lord Parkin]

• Torusworld
  
• Huge map
  
• 44% seas, Inland Ocean
  
• 100 tiles wide by 36 tiles tall
  
• 1 random improvement per 20 tiles
  
• Pitboss, normal speed.
  
• Monarch difficulty
  
• Barbarians on.
  
• No Tech Trading
  
• No vassal States
  
• No tribal Villages
  
• No Random Events
  
• Unrestricted leaders
  
• Tech cost Scaling
  
• Medium Distance Maintenance

After testing out a few random maps with the settings Krill mentioned, I've narrowed down my desired traits a bit. Primary choices are AGR/PRO/FIN/CHA - I definitely want at least one out of those, if not both. (If I could have all four I'd be a happy dude.) Secondary choices are IND/CRE/IMP - decent alternatives in case it's not possible to get a nice pairing on primary choices. I'm not completely ruling out SPI/EXP/PHI/ORG yet, but I'll probably pass on playing them this time around in favour of trying out the other options.