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

[WilliamLP]

Prediction: Kuro takes Tokugawa.

My first thought was who wouldn't take Tokugawa? Strength completely aside it's the chance to try something completely new and interesting.

Also, I'm loving the video game references (though I was never into that genre) and the player analyses were fantastic.

[Lord Parkin]

1. GermanJojo = Khmer
2. Kuro/Wetbandit = Tokugawa (AGR/PRO)
3. Gawdzak = Boudica (AGR/CHM)
4. Douglas Quaid = Egypt
5. slowcheetah = Napoleon (CHM/ORG)
6. Gavagai = Willem (FIN/CRE)
7. SevenSpirits = Russia
8. Mackoti = Charlemagne (PRO/IMP)
9. Haram = Ragnar (AGR/FIN)
10. HitAnyKey = Wang (FIN/PRO)
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

Called it on Tokugawa, and no surprise that Boudica went next. Both very interesting new combinations.

After that though... Egypt? With the War Chariot nerf I just don't see the appeal of sealing 10th leader pick. Napoleon was another head scratcher - why not Hannibal? FIN is still better than ORG on this map.

Willem makes sense, despite being a little ordinary - still strong despite the slight nerfs to both FIN and CRE. Not sure Russia was worth picking at the cost of falling back 4 spots in the leader pick, but I guess Seven has his reasons - maybe he also has a livestock start.

Charlemagne will be one to watch, though from my own experience he expands rather too fast for his economy to keep up early on. Ragnar is a solid pick, and I couldn't believe Wang lasted as long as he did. I would have taken him if he hadn't been snapped up just one spot too soon... damn.

[Lord Parkin]

So with Wang pulled out of the running at the last second, my options with the new traits are as follows. (Bolded the combinations without SPI/EXP/PHI/ORG which I mentioned I'm less interested in playing this time around.)

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)

AGR leaders:

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

I'd much rather play with PRO than AGR, so that narrows down the field to:

Qin Shi Huang (PRO/IND)
Churchill (PRO/CHA)
Gilgamesh (PRO/CRE)

Additionally there's Hannibal (FIN/CHM), who nabs two of my primary trait choices.

CRE interests me less than the other options, so that means it's a choice between Qin (PRO/IND), Churchill (PRO/CHM), and Hannibal (FIN/CHM). Qin is unbeatable for wonder-whoring; Churchill maxes out production capabilities; Hannibal offers the best research rate. Given the fact that Torusland usually gives a generous 2 food resources/city and rarely gives more than one early happiness resource, it shouldn't be hard to put CHM to good use. Hmm, a tough decision... I'll have a think about it over lunch.

[Lord Parkin]

Civs are slightly easier. Our options are:

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

Zulu is clearly best for Hunting/Agriculture, while Germany is probably best for Hunting/Mining. Will have a think about this too.

[Lord Parkin]

So my reasoning went like this:

Financial is very good, but not a necessity unless you're the odd one out. So far only 3/7 leader picks went to Financial, and crucially Mackoti didn't pick Wang Kon when he had the chance. If he had, I would have been pushed towards Hannibal in order to match the tech rate of the monster in the closet. In the end it was Mackoti's choice of Charlemagne over Wang that convinced me to drop Hannibal out of the running. That and my eagerness to try out the new PRO rather than rehash an old trait.

Then it was between Qin and Churchill. We have Marble near our start, so I view IND as being somewhat less useful than normal (only a maximum 33% bonus on Marble wonders, 25% after Forge and Organized Religion). PRO also already gives us a minor hammer bonus, so it's kind of like a super-mini version of IND anyway. In addition, if we're CHM rather than IND that's like the happiness benefit of the Pyramids available at the start of the game. Plus a minor consideration was that I thought the reduced XP thresholds might be interesting for trying out the new naval promotions. (Wharf + Drydock = 7 XP right there.) Oh, and also - who ever picks Churchill?

As for the civ choice, I was tempted by Germany but in the end I thought the Riesengarde would be just a bit too awkward to put into action in a timely manner. Making a deep beeline down the lower branch of the tech tree at that time of the game comes with a very high opportunity cost. Additionally, maintenance costs were higher than expected when I tried out some test maps, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with the Ikhanda - especially with PRO offsetting the higher hammer cost. I do hope someone else picks Germany though, as I'd be interested to face a Riesengarde army on the battlefield.

[Lord Parkin]

1. GermanJojo = Khmer (Hunting/Mining)
2. Kuro/Wetbandit = Tokugawa (AGR/PRO)
3. Gawdzak = Boudica (AGR/CHM)
4. Douglas Quaid = Egypt (Wheel/Agriculture)
5. slowcheetah = Napoleon (CHM/ORG)
6. Gavagai = Willem (FIN/CRE)
7. SevenSpirits = Russia (Hunting/Mining)
8. Mackoti = Charlemagne (PRO/IMP)
9. Haram = Ragnar (AGR/FIN)
10. HitAnyKey = Wang (FIN/PRO)
11. Lord Parkin = Churchill (PRO/CHM)
12. Lord Parkin = Zulu (Hunting/Agriculture)
13. HitAnyKey = Spain (Fishing/Mysticism)
14. Haram
15. Mackoti
16. SevenSpirits
17. Gavagai
18. slowcheetah
19. Douglas Quaid
20. Gawdzak
21. Kuro/Wetbandit
22. GermanJojo

Spain seems a bit of a weird choice, maybe HAK has a seafood start. At least Fishing/Mysticism starts him off with a decent amount of beakers. Possibly he could go for an early religion, we'll have to see.

[Lord Parkin]

1. GermanJojo = Khmer (Hunting/Mining)
2. Kuro/Wetbandit = Tokugawa (AGR/PRO)
3. Gawdzak = Boudica (AGR/CHM)
4. Douglas Quaid = Egypt (Wheel/Agriculture)
5. slowcheetah = Napoleon (CHM/ORG)
6. Gavagai = Willem (FIN/CRE)
7. SevenSpirits = Russia (Hunting/Mining)
8. Mackoti = Charlemagne (PRO/IMP)
9. Haram = Ragnar (AGR/FIN)
10. HitAnyKey = Wang (FIN/PRO)
11. Lord Parkin = Churchill (PRO/CHM)
12. Lord Parkin = Zulu (Hunting/Agriculture)
13. HitAnyKey = Spain (Fishing/Mysticism)
14. Haram = Mongolia (Hunting/Wheel)
15. Mackoti
16. SevenSpirits
17. Gavagai
18. slowcheetah
19. Douglas Quaid
20. Gawdzak
21. Kuro/Wetbandit
22. GermanJojo

Mongolia? Okay I guess. Based on the civ picks so far I suspect our livestock-only start may be in the minority, so most other players may well be quicker off the mark to their first city than us.

Mack and Seven are up next for picks, I'm keen to see what they get.

[Lord Parkin]

Time for a sim.

Sim Savegame (Turn 0)

Option 1

No point working the plains-hill-forest while building the Worker despite the bonus hammer (4h) since AH won't be ready in time to work the Pigs. Better to work the Pigs tile (3f/1c) and have both the Worker and AH arrive on T10. We still get +1 hammer from the city center tile due to PRO while building the first Worker.

T0: research Animal Husbandry, build Worker #1, work Pigs
T10: finish Animal Husbandry -> research Mining, finish Worker #1 -> build Warrior #1, pasture Pigs
T13: finish Pigs -> pasture Cows
T15: finish Mining -> research Bronze Working
T16: size 1 -> 2, work Pigs and Cows
T18: finish Warrior #1 -> build Warrior #2, finish Cows -> mine grassland-hill
T19: size 2 -> 3, work Pigs, Cows and grassland-forest
T21: finish Warrior #2 -> build Warrior #3
T22: size 3 -> 4, switch Warrior #3 -> Worker #2, work Pigs, Cows and two grassland-hill-forests
T24: finish grassland-hill mine -> chop plains-forest-hill, work Pigs, Cows, grassland-hill-mine, and plains-hill-forest
T26: finish Worker #2 -> build Settler #1, Worker #2 to chop plains-forest-hill, work Pigs, Cows, grassland-hill-mine, and grassland-forest
T28: finish Bronze Working -> research The Wheel
T29: finish chop -> both Workers mine plains-hill
T31: finish Settler #1 -> build Worker #3, finish plains-hill mine -> Worker #2 to chop grassland-hill forest, work Pigs, Cows, grassland-hill-mine, and plains-hill-mine

Two Warriors, two Workers and a Settler at T31.

Option 2

Same except finishing the third Warrior before starting the Worker, and working two grassland-hill-forests rather than two grassland-forests on T23.

Three Warriors, two Workers and a Settler at T32.

[Lord Parkin]

Option 3

Diverting from the path in Option 1 at T19 to build two Workers and a Settler at size 3, using the Workers to chop two forests. Also building a farm while waiting for BW to arrive.

One Warrior, three Workers and a Settler at T31.

Option 4

Same, except using the Workers to chop three forests. The overflow on the third forest could be delayed a turn or two to avoid wastage on the Warrior, or used to complete Worker #4 on T33.

One Warrior, three Workers and a Settler at T31 (with much more overflow).

[Lord Parkin]

Bwahaha, I'm so glad I picked Productive. Somehow I doubt this trait will remain the same in the next iteration. Some of the possibilities...

T33:

T34:

By T40 I could have 2 Settlers and 5-7 Workers.