[Spoilers] When Commodore is 64

[Commodore]

Not much of great interest has yet been found, beyond further confirmation that Krill wasn't even being subtle with his map roll. Here's the wide and jungled “Right H Leg Land”. Claimants shown in their corners...just ignore that I'm probably in a similar triangle on the other end.

Calendar luxuries, weak food. Seems almost 22ian.

Ah well, just playing Civ4. I'm in a weird opening, timing this fresh new warrior awkwardly one turn after growth. Two chops come in the turn after, though, so we're looking at a 2-turn settler following up. Strait to the gems, young man. Er, by way of improving cows first of course.

Not shown, Pindicator helpfully fogbusting along that vector. Thanks, man!

[Commodore]

I made a bad mistake; I bragged to a friend about our steady 2t/day turn pace. Sure enough, pace dropped immediately. Anyway, still moving along with the settlement plan to the west, to be rapidly followed by Tagon going east. Copper is apparently overrated.

Panther risk: Nonzero.

[GermanJoey]

I made a bad mistake; I bragged to a friend about our steady 2t/day turn pace. Sure enough, pace dropped immediately.

PBEMs: the book of the movie.

[Commodore]

Well, it's just slowed to 1t/day, which is fine really.

Wanna see something embarrassing? First of all, Ichabod's location would have been better...the one tile I missed was a riverside plains sheep. But secondly and even more embarrassing, it's turn 32 and I'm only now settling Andreysan. As Imperialistic. Yuri beat me to a second city even. Bleh. Ah well, at least Tagon should be a fast third, then we'll push to have five before anyone else breaks to four. Because of geography, we need twice the cities of everyone else to win.

Hell of a fine settler pump, though.

[Commodore]

We've got contact! Hello Mr. Flugauto, hope you're enjoying the view!

He's already met Pindicator, so that's England South-West.

[Commodore]

Cow time! Andreysan will grow to size 3, whip granary, then regrow to four and whip out the next settler. At a minimum we need three more cities before turn 50.

Gems online in like nine turns, but nice GNP boost when that happens.

[Commodore]

Sleepy, gentle, PBEM 64; four players peacefully building up on an expansive, roomy continent, each with their advantages and disadvantages. Oh, and one player Pink Barbarian Tribe in the middle desperately growing to be a giant pain in the ass for the eventual winner. Yeah, this is me. TAG is in a terrible location, missing copper, but having found that wet rice I think I know how I'll play this; one helper/leech 1W of copper, then a river-defended city between the rice and sheep after. Of course, the currently building settler is Tagon-bound.

Rivers all need OPERATION FISCAL JACKHAMMER III: THE JACKENING.

Actually, score and demos seem to indicate I'm doing pretty well right now, probably in fact on top at this juncture. Gems and ivory will let me grow soon, I'm ignoring culture-heavy plays so far, so Dat GNP is fairly real.

No floodplain gold mines online yet...

Top cities just show the capitals right now. Pindicator used his excellent start techs to grab religion, so his second city ought to show up soon enough. It's anyone's guess who will take Stonehenge...I don't think it'll be me though...culture is nice but MOAR CITIES is necessary.

Great lighthouse is on my radar though, I'll admit.

[Commodore]

Oh! Right! I met...

Flugauto (iconoclastic, determined)
as
Darius (Financial, Organized)
of
England (Fishing, Mining, Redcoat, Stock Exchange)
I haven't written much about Flugauto yet, because he's pretty new. He has half a game under his belt, where he was Mansa Musa of the Ottomen going against a green field and Gavagai. He wound up second place to Gavagai, although definitely with Mardoc's help. From Fluggy's extremely active lurking, though, we can get a decent picture of his personality: He's smart, observant, detail-oriented, and aggressive (might be lurker blood bias there). I definitely don't think he'll be a pushover or weak.
Skill Consistency:
Fear Factor:

Flugauto owns Darius of England; in case my feelings weren't clear before I think this is probably the best leader in the field paired with the worst civilization. I'm well neigh burned out with Darius, but his economy glows if you can compensate for his start speed. England is argued for all the time but I'm just less and less impressed with the net result, sad to say.

I covered these economy traits with Yuri and Pindicator, respectively:

Organized, lost naught at all in RBmod, which makes it strong contender for the best trait in the game. The always-on bonus of civic savings is pretty substantial, and lighthouses are an excellent cheap building (particularly where they're needed most, in low-hammer fisheries), but where you really see it pop is when courthouses come online. Holy crap on a cracker, is it nice to save 60 hammers on a building that really should be essential basically everywhere on Monarch. Factories, well, you know the code there. Win-more mechanic, blah, blah, whatever Org is still a powerhouse economy trait.

Financial is kind of a weird trait, now. As seen above, Turkey in this world is pretty well-rivered, so not a lot of chance for the trait to shine early, but a lot of coast results from Krill's Sadistic Snakeland roll. I like Financial coast, makes packing in a bunch of fishing villages work well, and the general biasing towards a cottage economy is certainly interesting with this new ballin' Free Speech. Cheap banks are worth a lot, eventually. So although Wang Kon's economic later trait lacks the umph of Organized, it will definitely be useful.

Obviously, with Darius the problem is that there is nothing at all boosting your start, and it showed in this game as Flugauto was the last to a second city, and probably lacks himself granaries, religion, etc to compensate. This definitely makes me consider Flug as my potential salvation/victim...his advantages sure come late enough for there to be a good kill window.

Redcoats are, bar none, the best units to mass draft unto Pangaea-wide conquest against AIs in the game. This is multiplayer, however, where one movers are retarded (I know I'm considering Chucklenaught/Ninja conquest, hush) and Rifling is way late. Flug reaches his UU, they will definitely help him win more, all I can say. You might make a case for the Stock Exchange having synergy with Financial, but that's coupled with an anti-synergy with Organized unless you're really late game going nuts with suffrage economies (which actually is anti-synergy again, because cheap factories don't care about cash rush). So...again with the late-game stuff. Let's follow this young man's career with great interest. The start techs were workable, at least.

Early Game Power:
Middle Game Power:
Late Game Power:
Combo Power:

Biggest threat to:

Scones are literally the only food I miss from England, now that Salt and Vinegar crisps are here in the States.

[Commodore]

Updated the first this game post with links to the analysises thus far, but am I wasting my time in a backwater PBEM nobody looks at here? I apparently had Pin incorrectly listed as "France" and nobody noticed.

[Ichabod]

Updated the first this game post with links to the analysises thus far, but am I wasting my time in a backwater PBEM nobody looks at here? I apparently had Pin incorrectly listed as "France" and nobody noticed.

I noticed, but forgot to post about it.