[Spoilers] Breaking Newbs: A Title I Already Regret Writing

[Bobchillingworth]

First terrible pun to pop in my head.



Gunshow is a pretty great webcomic:

[Bobchillingworth]

Pre-pick thoughts:


I guess I didn't learn my lesson before about how boring BTS can get


Actually, I rather enjoyed about half of PBEM 54. It was a very passive game from my perspective though.


Opponents are:

retep, who seems fairly good, if sometimes prone to self-destructing quickly.

Jowy, who would be good if he didn't always self-destruct eventually.

~And two breakfast-themed new guys~



I'm thinking Wang Kon of Mali for my ideal combo. Protective has better value than usual with Jowy and retep afoot. China would be a great civ to land as well. BTS-styled Protective could even have aggressive applications- Shock Skirms and heavily-promoted Chokos aren't half-bad. If that isn't available, perhaps Catherine of... somewhere... to make up for normal speed.

Other good traits: Exp, Org, Spi. Ind instinctively seems like a hammer trap. Aggressive would be decent if we started on Industrial or something for immediate drafting, but it generally seems very dubious. Charismatic depends a lot on how generous Commodore is feeling- he felt very generous in 54. Philo might be a great pick, but I have little understanding of BTS bulbing priorities or strategies, and even less interest in familiarizing myself with them.

[Bobchillingworth]

I have just been informed by myself that Cornflakes is, in fact, not a new player and indeed has been around for some years.


That said, the only mention of him on the games spreadsheet is a single pitboss, so I suppose he hasn't been particularly active, 1,000+ posts notwithstanding.

[Bobchillingworth]

Spamming my own thread here...


Note to self- things not banned that usually are:


* Corporations

* Spies (!)

[Commodore]

Fog gazing is of the devil, etc, etc. Your start:
   

[Bobchillingworth]

Thanks. Very interesting start, favoring fishing / hunting. I'm not even sure who starts with those techs, possibly Greece? I'll have to look more into it. Although at least Hunting is really cheap, so perhaps it doesn't matter much anyway. Moving the scout to the right seems like a given.


Also almost certainly mirrored starts, with a gimmick opening like this.

[Commodore]

Fishing/Hunting is Greek or Viking. But yeah, those are the cheapest techs.

[Bobchillingworth]

Cool beans (???), I gots me some Wang Kon.


Mali is first choice to pair him with- decent starting techs, okay UB, UU which ideally acts as a Jowy deterrent. I don't mind Jowy nearly as much as certain other posters, but to the best of my knowledge he has yet to play in a game where he didn't pursue the debilitating Jowy Strategy.


China is a great pick, and not just for the starting techs (which I still don't really care that much about). Cho-kos would be really awesome units to have around. UB kind of blows though, unless I get stuck attempting a culture win.


Spain makes me a lock for a religion, maybe even two, but is it worth it? I'd also get a discount on the UB, which is decent enough, but my UU would be terrible. Still, it's a mildly tempting combination.


Babylon is interesting, if I want to be an idiot and Bowman rush somebody, but that's an insane gamble outside of real-time 120 turns games (where it's merely risky and a little dumb).


HRE has a totally sweet UB and decent enough UU. I think the starting techs might blow chunks tho.


All of the +2 happiness UB civs are reasonably appealing. Hrmm.



Hah, I don't know. Mali is first pick for sure, after that... I'll see what's left to me.

[Bobchillingworth]

FYI, this is a toroid with tundra/ice removed setting, it's cramped but not insane.

Hrmm. Not a huge fan of this constant dribble of revealing information, although I may be be alone in that regard. It wouldn't have affected my pick (actually makes me even happier I got Wang) (lol), but shouldn't we be left to discover some of this for ourselves? I understand why you'd want to tell us if we were on continents or whatever, but is it really necessary that we all know what terrain and resources are present? I was a bit taken aback when retep asked about Marble / Stone, but perhaps that sort of knowledge is typical now. We ask some leading questions when setting up FFH games as well, but that's largely so we know whether the Lanun and/or certain rushing civs need to be banned.


Certainly Metra's pick sounds worse in light of the "cramped" revelation.


Also hurry up and pick, Muffin! Gotta get through him and Cornflakes before the Eurotrash our Nordic/Slavic friends go to bed.



Edit:

Can you give us a rough idea of cities per person?

Seriously, wtf? Is this sort of fishing normal now? Has it always been, and I simply never noticed, as I blindly sleepwalk through life?

[Commodore]

Granted, normally I don't like it either, but I did give the script/size away, which shows the map. Tundra/snow vs. not makes them basically two different map types though, literally halving the number of cities you can get when the script vomits all that tundra and snow.

edit. Then he asks for more!