[Spoilers] Pindicator accepts his fate

[pindicator]

I have to say, I'm very happy getting the wheel spot in the snake pick. No pressure early on, and then pick the best combination out of what is left. This might not help my tendency to over value synergistic combinations -- but hey, this is supposed to be fun after all. A lot will depend on the opening screenshot, but more so that what the screenshots show for our competitors will eliminate civilisations and leaders more fit for those starting resources. I don't expect an ideal civ or leader for our screenshot, making it even more of a "let's pick a fun combination" situation.

Also, no way in hell are we picking a PRO leader. Just no.

[greenline]

your start



tiles in the fat cross of where the settler is won't change

fog gazing is bad

[pindicator]

What about the water tile 2NE of the settler? Technically not fog gazing nor in the BFC

[pindicator]

So it looks like greenline didn't get the Earthsea memo, but we'll make do.

Some initial impressions:

Note: Everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. There are 11 people picking civs and leaders before us, and a lot of this will be rendered moot long before we even get to pick.

• I don't see any reason to move the settler. (And even if I did see a reason to move the settler, after the fiasco that happened in 31 I wouldn't entertain it.)
  
• Best starting techs are probably Hunting & Mining. Civs with Hunting & Mining: Ethiopia, Germany, Khmer, & Russia.
  
• Brainstorming combinations with those civs: Bismark of Khmer, aiming for Hanging Gardens, but more generally EXP Khmer. ORG Germany for super cheap Factories. CHA or AGG Ethiopia to stack the promotions on Oromos. PHI Russia and bulb our way to fast Education, building cheap Research Institutes.
  
• None of those ideas really captivate me, but let's rank them anyway: Russia, Germany (because you can just pick a solid leader to go with a solid start and the payback at the end is just a bonus), Ethiopia, Khmer.
  
• Alternatively, any combination of Hunting, Mining, and Agriculture are probably good, and you could probably get by with a civ that only has Hunting (though I would avoid only one of the other two).
  
• Ranking Trait Combinations: 1) Hunting + Mining, 2) Hunting + Agriculture, 3) Agriculture + Mining, 4) Hunting + Anything Else, 5) Agriculture + Anything Else, 6) Everything Else. Ugh, I suppose Wheel can be useful too with all those hills.
  
• Celts love hills. Maybe Celts? Hunting + Mysticism there. I do love Swords in RtR to a fault. And Guerilla 3 withdraw does fit nicely with attacking units.
  
• Aztecs are also Hunting + Mysticism. This reminds me of when I dueled Commodore, him as Celts, me as Aztecs. (Bad Wonder on the far coast to get culture and launch a naval invasion onto backlines!)
  
• While we're talking about Hunting + Mysticism civs, what about the HRE? Never tech Fishing, bulb Engineering with a Great Scientist, and just have the uber-annoying but not really uber Landsknecht. Landsknecht are kind of like the Oromos of the middle ages: great overall unit, but not really specializing in attack
  
• Creative Greece?
  
• If other people have a similar start then Mongolia and Zulu will not be available for me to pick so let's not bother.
  

[Commodore]

Serious dedlurker hat: On.

First of all, let's be reductive. Assuming you want to win, you need to roflstomp a neighbor. If the neighbors are only Gawdzak, Borsche, and/or OT4E, that's it. You've lost. If its Wetbandicac or Nicolae and those, probably not. If StarDoor is another Mackoti smurf, you've lost. Assuming not automatically losing, then...

You need to REX out to as big an empire as you can, then conquer another one or more. Usually in that order. Greenline is spending a fair bit of effort on the map; that's a handbuilt start or I'll eat my serious dedlurker hat. New mapmaker, toroid, handbuilt, 12 people...I fully expect it's going to be a big map. So assuming it's a big map...

Horse archers, swords, and/or anything earlier won't be conquering stuff. I'll make mild exceptions for Celtic G3 Gaels if they mix with tough crossbows also fast moving but that's no sure thing. Thus, the earliest you'll be conquering is in the medieval era. Unless you have one hell of a slingshot for a few very specific targets, though, anything *later* than Renaissance is too late. But the combo, whatever it is, needs to be able to expand very very fast; going by seat of the pants for a game this size you're going to look at 15-20 cities to knights (or G2 CKNs or zerkers) or 25-30 cities to cuirs/musketeers/galleons/carracks. That's kind of where I'd be looking at the action of the game taking place, then.

So civilizations break down into two categories; civs that get you there faster via economic advantage (Inca, Sumer, Aztecs, Khmer, Greece), or civs that have advantages in the game-winning era (Byzantium, France, China, Arabia, Mongolia*). If it's not a 2-move unit, then ignore it in favor of knights knights knights. Leaders are all about making to those targets able to whip a winning army from a big empire.
*Gers kind of suck though, best to ignore stables and mass knights from barracks+Theo or Vassalge

That's my reductive thinking on the matter, take it or leave it. It certainly is possible that greenline will blow the size high, allowing a REX-unto-win game. But that's doubtful; the snowball break-even for conquest starts looking really really nice around 1AD (Medieval).

[pindicator]

If this is a larger map then I might be tempted by Russia... Knights would certainly be the target for a first war, but Cavalry / Cossacks would be right in line for the next, and the Research Institute is a very nice UB in RtR.

[greenline]

You need to REX out to as big an empire as you can, then conquer another one or more. Usually in that order. Greenline is spending a fair bit of effort on the map; that's a handbuilt start or I'll eat my serious dedlurker hat. New mapmaker, toroid, handbuilt, 12 people...I fully expect it's going to be a big map.

just for stereotyping me i'm rerolling a tiny boreal map and pasting all your starts in it

[pindicator]

Two ORG leaders gone in the first two picks -- you can tell both people are thinking about filling up a big map full of cities.

This actually has me thinking about AGG forone of the traits.

[Commodore]

Affordable REX: Genghis or Vicky?

[pindicator]

I'd lean Genghis, but I wouldn't be against Shaka as well.