[spoilers] Commodore and Dtay are Sitting Bull of Inca, somehow.

[Commodore]

Apparently we're about to start today?

By the way, Dtay, I think our snake result thoughts are more or less in harmony. I'd rank the picks thusly:

1. Commodore + dtay: Sitting Bull of Inca:
Should be pretty obvious. Protective Inca is a no-duh combination if there ever was one...although we have a mysticism start, we really have no need to go down that line until we're good and ready for Monarchy (and OR) thanks to the free culture. Protective just by itself is an excellent trait, and I'm eagerly looking forward to New!Phi. Standard size and tasty field does mean sooner is better, so burning GP pools for the short term is fine by me.


2. German Joey: Genghis Khan of the Zulu:
Like Dtay said, this combo is strength unto strength. Joseph has the benefit of a clear game plan and if he's smart he can actually leverage this well into a rush...double your land early, that's Agg Zulu (now better with RBmod). I actually love this combination so much I'd almost place it above ours, but the ProTerrace is just good enough to edge us into first. Unless he rushes to the win.


3. Retep: Joao of Aztecs:
Back in the old old game of Pitboss 24, Dtay and I really wanted the Aztecs, because cheap courthouses mostly. Joao really really really loves himself some cheap courthouses given his tendency to build eight billion settlers and workers. I know he's amazingly strong still here in RBmod, I just find the market/grocer boon awkward and as Dtay mentioned, he'll be wanting markets and sacrificial altars at the same time. Which is also, whups, when he really wants to be heading directly to Guilds for Winning Knight Play. Still, Retep is super-engaged in the opening turns so he should make Joao pop and having “too many awesome things to build” isn't the worst problem.


4. Gavagai: Mao of Carthage:
From this pick I conclude that Gavagai is impressed with GermanJoey's game in PB22; he tends to copy the his rivals of previous games. I like this pick quite a lot, particularly if this map is somewhat continental (we don't know that, do we?). Cheap Cothons are obviously ballin', and having Agg-bonus equivalent on horse archers is nice (moment of silence for my beloved Numidians), possibly critical if he wants to eat someone early. Mao is great, of course.


5. HAK + Fenn: Mehmed of HRE:
We're finally departing the contender bracket here player-wise, but I actually really like this combination. Pretty good for a die-roll. Holy Rome is better due to the Hunting tech improvement and the nerfing of other superstar civs, and Org Rathausai are still insanely good. If HAK makes it there, he's in good shape, and not like Exp won't get him off to a good start. I guess LKs are a bit more useful in stopping RBmod super-swords? Mostly, it's all about the UB here, but that alone is enough to make this an excellent combo.


6. Borsche + AgentJohns: Shaka of Ottomans:
With the most basic of fair synergies, we have here Aggressive Janissary and Expansive Hannam. Okay. Shaka's a fine leader in his own right who between the Aggmaint and the Marketgrocers will probably find himself ignoring courthouses all game. I'm never against a 50h +2 building, just never very inspired on a typical map, and Jans are...pretty okay. Don't get me wrong, this is a perfectly fine combo, just feels a bit dry.


7. Donovan Zoi + AdrienIer: Bismarck of India:
In contrast, of course, we have D'Zai here with the un-dry but deeply problematic combo of Badtechs with Wondertempted. I get the idea here, but the execution is going to be bloody tricky. Now, smart and disciplined at the very best, this combo nets a Stonehenge build early on then ignores religion while self-researching Metal Casing; get cheap forges, then just buckle down and enjoy a very normal game only targeting very specific wonders as in a normal game. There is just going to be a huge huge temptation to get lost in the weeds...if they find themselves with half a dozen overbuilt fast workers chopping out the Temple or Artemis, you know why.


8. Grimace: Ramesses of Celtia:
But wait! What's worse? How about the temptation to go wonder chasing and deep into the religious techs and to build walls(!) all over the place. Frankly, our pick of Celts in 24 was cool play and a probable mistake, but at least we only had half the temptations Grimace has, and an early game booster in the form of Pro granaries. This pick...well, someone(s) neighboring this combo is getting some wonders and a holy city or two. Lucky neighbor(s).


9. Elkad: Hammurabi of the Dutch:
Well, someone had to be the beetlebomb. The caribou of summation managed it with a slow late-bloomer leader of a terribly late-blooming civ. We already know his plan, given his willingness to shipwreck PB24 for it; EP economy. Org allows for some of that, I guess, but the EE's been nerfed hard and as we told Krill back there, the trouble is you've kind of got to already be behind to use it. And the Dutch are so very very late...

[Krill]

How is ORG nerfed?

[Commodore]

How is ORG nerfed?

Subject confusion, sorry...it's the Espionage Economy that's nerfed.

[dtay]

Aren't you a writer or something Commodore? Grammar!

[Commodore]

Aren't you a writer or something Commodore? Grammar!

Pfft, I'm a physicist working as an engineer who writes on the side. And besides, grammar is what Word is for.

[dtay]

Random conversation:

I actually really like the cheap markets. Grocers are hit or miss, but I find 75-hammers for up to 4 happiness (usually achievable on rb maps) and then 25% gold on the side to be a pretty awesome building. Especially since you were probably going to put the hammers into SOMETHING to create happiness, except now you get moar munnies and more happy per hammer.

Grocers are meh. You're Exp, so don't need the health even more than normal civs, so now it's just another (pretty cheap) 25%-econ building. Worth building over banks or observatories (usually, slider dependant) and universities except for the OU issue, but you risk falling into the trap of building too much infrastructure in general.

Other sidenote - Fin Banks are sweet.

[dtay]

I'm a physicist working as an engineer who writes on the side"

Color me impressed

[Commodore]

Game is live.

Welcome to Pitboss 25, one and all. This pretty face gret me on the way in; Sitting Bull of Inca (password is "Cow") is our leader. Unassuming grey is our color.

Sitting Bull lived the hard knock life.

Here are the settings, they look good to me although to be completely honest I kind of wasn't paying a ton of attention. The map name is very encouraging. The map size...we've got 1174 tiles, which is 130 tiles per civ. That's a lot tighter than the norm for a pitboss, although not necessarily brutally close depending on the map's layout. Everything else is standard.

Monarch, the new noble.

I could have dithered, but I'm pretty sure neither one of us ever considered moving from SIP, so, we're SIP'd. Here's SIP. It's a nice capital; the heavy coastal tile ratio can be compensated by rich trade routes. Pretty sure this sucker will need Bureau, there is a wealth of hammers in these here hills that will slowly get windmilled only later in the game post-Oxford.

Hugo award winning novella, flagship story in Zahn's first short story anthology.

Demographics. HAK came in as I was playing and also settled; he's Mehmed, so expansive, so working for the bonus hammer. Otherwise, we're pretty similar. He's also got himself a coastal capital, so another point towards similar starts. Also, good PYFT there HAK...point to Hufflepuff.

HAK is totally Hufflepuff.

Finally, here is Our Land. Let's avoid being genocided and having it taken away by a mixture of rifles, booze, and demographics, mkay?
-The 3S spot for second city is looking nice; shares corn and gets SILVAR so that's good.
-We're in the northern hemisphere, temperate band.
-Stone is awesome, that's moai helped and Pyramids doable although I'm sure if we have near stone, everyone has near stone.
-Furs mean that we'll want AH soon but probably still after Pottery.
-Finally, I figure scout east? North and west are oceanic so only two options.

Too soon?

[dtay]

Yep east sounds about right.

[Commodore]

Yep east sounds about right.

About west...think we could manage something very nice for 500 334 hammers?