2metraninja finally chose Pacal of Portugal !
I've seen him a few times on civfanatics, and you say he's a ladder player. He should be pretty good, but as you said he'll have the weakness of those who usually plays games only till the middle age or renaissance. He did sub Ichabod (I think) near the end of PB13 so he has some late game MP experience. The long time he took to choose his civ could be a sign of indecision, we got the capital screenshots 5 days ago.
Pick analysis : Pacal is great, in BTS Pacal of Inca is my favorite combination, here he's nerfed but still super viable. He'll probably try for early pottery and use his many workers to build as many cottages (away from the rivers at first) he can get. The combination of cheap markets and grocers with fin is very strong (along with cheap banks), his tech rate will thrive if he gets to those buildings' respective techs with a strong-ish position. Portugal, while not a bad choice, is strong only in the late game, and without Imp he'll pay for those feitorias full price. Even though they're cheaper than regular custom houses it's an investment to put one in every coastal city. Once again Victoria would have been a solid choice, although weaker than Pacal until the feitoria comes in. The carrack is a nice UU but IMO not as strong as the Dutch Indianman. It can only transport 2 units and having a bunch of them in enemy territory is too obvious a plot so while it comes earlier you can't use it to properly attack someone by surprise. It seems we have yet another coastal start !
Synergy : No cheap UB, but feitorias along with Fin is strong for 2/0/3 ocean tiles and 2/0/4 coasts so I guess he can make it work.
Edit : I forgot about Dreylin who will play with 2metraninja, but I don't know anything about him.
Now Plako as Roosevelt of Sumeria
Plako was in PB2 and PB13, the two games I followed more closely, and my impression is that he's very capable but more importantly he's very flexible in his strategies. In PB2 he was defeated early and was heading for a game of irrelevance until he built the GLH and made himself an island empire that put him on par with the rest of the pack by the end of the game. His coming back from the dead (only one island city) was superb and proved a real understanding of the game. In PB13 he was clearly in 3rd place behind mackoti and scooter/pindicator for most of the game but used the known tech bonus and the difficult wars of the two leaders to be included in the final draw decision. Once again no one would have bet on him for most of the game but he eventually managed to make a come back. He has a thing for using the right features to their fullest in order to compensate for his weaknesses, and it makes him one of the most likely to win here.
Pick analysis : He picked Sumer first, which means he intends to make a strong opening this time around. Vultures are strong and Ziggurats are interesting. Vultures have the advantage of 1) defeating catapults, 2) not dying to horse archers and 3) being equal to axemen against melee units (stronger with promotions). Ziggurats being available at priesthood means he might want to grab an early religion and have a go at the oracle. He'll get them super cheap at 45h, so we may have to spend espionage towards him at first (in case we're close) because he'll get +2 per city far earlier than us.
He'll probably want to get to priesthood, spam cheap Ziggurats in his cities while building a cheap oracle in his capital. Maybe he'll end up leading the pack this time instead of having to find alternate ways to stay close to the top.
It's our turn ! ReallyEvilMuffin and AdrienIer are Mehmed of Korea.
For the other players we'll probably be the wildcard of this game. They know you have MP experience on gamespy, but how that will translate in your skills for this style of PB games is unknown. I'm probably even more of a mystery, I haven't played MP until very recently and even on CivFanatics I mostly hang around the RFC mod subforum. I hope we'll be the pleasant surprise of this Pitboss !
Pick analysis : First was Korea. You gave them a hint that we chose it partly for the starting techs when you mentioned we were considering moving the capital. Korea is pretty good because it has good starting techs (in the mod at least), a very strong UU that is far more useful in MP than in SP (it does nothing against the archers the AI loves so much, but human players will usually defend with axes) and a good renaissance UB. It's not super strong but it's definitely solid. Then we took Mehmed. Mehmed is a strong leader, exp and org are both desirable traits, with a good possibility for building wealth (cheap markets grocers and courthouses plus lower civic maintenance). But it doesn't have Phi for the cheap UB, and little synergy all around. Of course nothing synergises well with a catapult UU so it's not as bad as it sounds (It would be fun to mix UUs and UBs of different civs to use a citadel with a Hwacha, but of course the citadel comes too late after the Hwacha so it probably wouldn't work that well). The Hwacha is useful for a very long time and so are our traits.
Now HitAnyKey and Cornflakes are Boudica of Egypt
Like 2metraninja they took their time choosing their civ, but it might be less about indecision and more about discussion between the players, as it was for us. I don't know either of them, but they seem to be active members here with a good reputation.
Pick analysis : Boudica was probably the strangest pick of the round, even more so because it was the second pick of all. But it's the most aggressive leader one could take. You have cheap barracks and stables, C1 for all melee and gunpowder and early promotions. Your units will be super promoted and therefore super deadly. Egypt in itself is pretty strong, with an awesome UU and an early UB. I suppose they start with a grain resource or they'll be screwed by lack of worker techs, as they'll want to tech mysticism early for obelisks to become available (and Stonehenge is probably a goal of them). At first the synergy looks fine with this pair, as you can pump war chariots with a promo from a barrack, and you have +1 happiness from the obelisk due to Cha. But in the end many things don't work out so well. You have obelisks as a UB and cheap barracks so you're wasting one cultural building if you build both of them or waste a strong opportunity (making either your UB or part of your traits useless) if you only build one. Your trait gives you cheap stables to go with your UU but the techs for stables is the same one that obsoletes your UU because HA are stronger than WC. Agg and WC do not go together, and I believe they're either wasting a trait (in the early game at least) or a UU.
I've seen him a few times on civfanatics, and you say he's a ladder player. He should be pretty good, but as you said he'll have the weakness of those who usually plays games only till the middle age or renaissance. He did sub Ichabod (I think) near the end of PB13 so he has some late game MP experience. The long time he took to choose his civ could be a sign of indecision, we got the capital screenshots 5 days ago.
Pick analysis : Pacal is great, in BTS Pacal of Inca is my favorite combination, here he's nerfed but still super viable. He'll probably try for early pottery and use his many workers to build as many cottages (away from the rivers at first) he can get. The combination of cheap markets and grocers with fin is very strong (along with cheap banks), his tech rate will thrive if he gets to those buildings' respective techs with a strong-ish position. Portugal, while not a bad choice, is strong only in the late game, and without Imp he'll pay for those feitorias full price. Even though they're cheaper than regular custom houses it's an investment to put one in every coastal city. Once again Victoria would have been a solid choice, although weaker than Pacal until the feitoria comes in. The carrack is a nice UU but IMO not as strong as the Dutch Indianman. It can only transport 2 units and having a bunch of them in enemy territory is too obvious a plot so while it comes earlier you can't use it to properly attack someone by surprise. It seems we have yet another coastal start !
Synergy : No cheap UB, but feitorias along with Fin is strong for 2/0/3 ocean tiles and 2/0/4 coasts so I guess he can make it work.
Edit : I forgot about Dreylin who will play with 2metraninja, but I don't know anything about him.
Now Plako as Roosevelt of Sumeria
Plako was in PB2 and PB13, the two games I followed more closely, and my impression is that he's very capable but more importantly he's very flexible in his strategies. In PB2 he was defeated early and was heading for a game of irrelevance until he built the GLH and made himself an island empire that put him on par with the rest of the pack by the end of the game. His coming back from the dead (only one island city) was superb and proved a real understanding of the game. In PB13 he was clearly in 3rd place behind mackoti and scooter/pindicator for most of the game but used the known tech bonus and the difficult wars of the two leaders to be included in the final draw decision. Once again no one would have bet on him for most of the game but he eventually managed to make a come back. He has a thing for using the right features to their fullest in order to compensate for his weaknesses, and it makes him one of the most likely to win here.
Pick analysis : He picked Sumer first, which means he intends to make a strong opening this time around. Vultures are strong and Ziggurats are interesting. Vultures have the advantage of 1) defeating catapults, 2) not dying to horse archers and 3) being equal to axemen against melee units (stronger with promotions). Ziggurats being available at priesthood means he might want to grab an early religion and have a go at the oracle. He'll get them super cheap at 45h, so we may have to spend espionage towards him at first (in case we're close) because he'll get +2 per city far earlier than us.
He'll probably want to get to priesthood, spam cheap Ziggurats in his cities while building a cheap oracle in his capital. Maybe he'll end up leading the pack this time instead of having to find alternate ways to stay close to the top.
It's our turn ! ReallyEvilMuffin and AdrienIer are Mehmed of Korea.
For the other players we'll probably be the wildcard of this game. They know you have MP experience on gamespy, but how that will translate in your skills for this style of PB games is unknown. I'm probably even more of a mystery, I haven't played MP until very recently and even on CivFanatics I mostly hang around the RFC mod subforum. I hope we'll be the pleasant surprise of this Pitboss !
Pick analysis : First was Korea. You gave them a hint that we chose it partly for the starting techs when you mentioned we were considering moving the capital. Korea is pretty good because it has good starting techs (in the mod at least), a very strong UU that is far more useful in MP than in SP (it does nothing against the archers the AI loves so much, but human players will usually defend with axes) and a good renaissance UB. It's not super strong but it's definitely solid. Then we took Mehmed. Mehmed is a strong leader, exp and org are both desirable traits, with a good possibility for building wealth (cheap markets grocers and courthouses plus lower civic maintenance). But it doesn't have Phi for the cheap UB, and little synergy all around. Of course nothing synergises well with a catapult UU so it's not as bad as it sounds (It would be fun to mix UUs and UBs of different civs to use a citadel with a Hwacha, but of course the citadel comes too late after the Hwacha so it probably wouldn't work that well). The Hwacha is useful for a very long time and so are our traits.
Now HitAnyKey and Cornflakes are Boudica of Egypt
Like 2metraninja they took their time choosing their civ, but it might be less about indecision and more about discussion between the players, as it was for us. I don't know either of them, but they seem to be active members here with a good reputation.
Pick analysis : Boudica was probably the strangest pick of the round, even more so because it was the second pick of all. But it's the most aggressive leader one could take. You have cheap barracks and stables, C1 for all melee and gunpowder and early promotions. Your units will be super promoted and therefore super deadly. Egypt in itself is pretty strong, with an awesome UU and an early UB. I suppose they start with a grain resource or they'll be screwed by lack of worker techs, as they'll want to tech mysticism early for obelisks to become available (and Stonehenge is probably a goal of them). At first the synergy looks fine with this pair, as you can pump war chariots with a promo from a barrack, and you have +1 happiness from the obelisk due to Cha. But in the end many things don't work out so well. You have obelisks as a UB and cheap barracks so you're wasting one cultural building if you build both of them or waste a strong opportunity (making either your UB or part of your traits useless) if you only build one. Your trait gives you cheap stables to go with your UU but the techs for stables is the same one that obsoletes your UU because HA are stronger than WC. Agg and WC do not go together, and I believe they're either wasting a trait (in the early game at least) or a UU.
![[Image: 2dh8cu9.png]](http://i61.tinypic.com/2dh8cu9.png)
![[Image: 30sa5mq.png]](http://i60.tinypic.com/30sa5mq.png)
