[spoilers] Commodore rolls it lolrandom.

[Commodore]

I’m going to try some basic analysis of our combinations and the gameplans, which I’ll very willingly cede first and foremost is going to be a very silly exercise given the game settings. The script can have very silly starts, and couple that with raging barbarians? We might very well have some cities lost to the hordes, there’s a nonzero chance of total wipeouts. If it was buildable on Classic, I’d consider going Great Wall first. Still, it’s entertaining…


Commodore: Roosevelt (IND/ORG) of Inca (Terrace*, Quechua)
I noted Inca as nerfed above, but it’s not useless. The new weird terrace will situationally boost the occasional city, particularly if the script throws islands for us (because islands are dry), and I don’t mind having 15h MP units until CS/Machinery obsoletes them. With terraces maint reduction, Industrious’ new civic cost reduction, and the usual Organized help, my empire is going to be cheap. Really hope I can afford a diversion to the Aesthetics/Literature line, because being industrious in the Totestra Forest Belt is going to be a blast. Miss the CtH thing with +100% on national wonders, but it’s okay.

My challenge is going to be primarily defense and expansion early on, with a tundra to the south at the very least spawning a billion barbs forever plus the forest belt needing a huge number of undiscounted workers. My capital is going to be EPIC eventually with all those riverside grasslands turned into cottages but there’s a nasty slog ahead in the short term. Don’t want to be shy about chops, painful as it will be to wait for Math. Speaking of which, I want Metal Casing badly, but I think Mathematics is the first tech with even more urgency. I love spreadsheets but barbarians won’t let me plan out long-term on this one.

NOTE TO SELF: BUILD MORE AXES THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED.


Pindicator: Mao (EXP/PRO) of Mongolia (Ger*, Keshik)
If Pindicator is in the Forest Belt, the Jungle Belt, or a Seafood Spawn, then he is going to be really appreciating the worker/work boat boost, particularly in the advanced start buy phase. His anti-barbarian early focus will be a little different from the rest of us, with an urgent desire for horses over copper due to both super-gers and Protective archers fighting a little better than the rest of ours do. It’s going to be otherwise a pretty standard opening for him with the Exp/Pro boost helping his REX and ideally an early Horseback Riding shielding his cities and capturing barbs. Nice, but not spectacular combo that I really hope to be far away from (I’ll be right next door as usual).

Pindicator is going to enjoy the rrrrrandomness of the game a great deal and I think if he avoids any Raging Barb Capital Losses his motivation will remain high. Barbarian numbers will hurt his spreadsheet-focused style a lot. I expect a very strong and balanced expansion phase with markets and grocers mitigating the large empire costs by the time he reaches his two-dozen-city Guilds Breakout timing. Then it’s going to be searching for victims time, or else a search for a new world.


Yuris: San Martin (CRE/CHM) of HRE (Rathaus, Landsknecht*)
So much better than CtH, San Martin is still not what I think of as a powerhouse leader. Yuri really will enjoy Creative borders and Charismatic promos in the gnarly barbarian environment here, which also makes a Feudalism beeline stronger. Despite those positives, I don’t see anything to speed expansion here and I think there’s going to be a struggle for poor Yuri to keep up, lacking even my cheap forges. Creative suffers the worst with Classic Era’s gift of free religions.

Yuri won’t complain and won’t get demoralized no matter his setbacks. The biggest weakness of his games is often running a bit too light on baseline military (despite being a dogged defender when he is actually attacked), I think the barbarian pressure may actually help here. Very start-dependent here, I hope for his sake he’s in one of those gorgeous floodplains starts that the script throws, although those sandy wastelands toss out hordes there’s also a lot of early expansion that enables.


Thoth: Pacal (FIN/EXP) of France (Salon, Musketeer)
Least changed combo belongs to Thoth, who is only a cheap granary away from being a top BtS combo pick. Without starting techs mattering I’m actually a little less than impressed with France, those specials are both nice but that’s a long way to get there. Vast Totestra distances make musketeers happy, I guess. The general comment for natural maps is that they buff Financial a lot because the generally cruddy terrain quality makes working coast more attractive. Very strong combination.

Thoth is a cheerful warrior and loves violent interaction with his neighbors, which actually makes him weaker on a Totestra where he’s a million miles away from the nearest human…he’s a good warmonger but only an average peaceful developer. Raging barbarians will be aiding him in keeping his interest and engagement up. I don’t discount early aggression but Thoth will be mostly likely just a standard-issue Proper Monster late.


Krill: Victoria (FIN/IMP) of Korea (Seowon, Hwatcha*)
This is an annoying habit, Krill getting the best combo by the RNG after he buffs both components…catapults that can kill AND Vicky getting a maint reduction? Yeeouch. I already spoke up the virtues of Financial on the map type and Krill vroom vrooming Imperialistic is going to be impressive. Korea isn’t a powerhouse but it is kind of funny that hwatcha can be the main anti-barbarian workhorse unit, handling axes, spears, and swords like a champ alone. Universities aren’t usually worth the money but I guess Education is slightly nicer for him.

Krill’s good, as we all hopefully know. This is a potential horror-show. If Krill’s isolated in a highly coastal starting area he’s going to be a complete monster, able to get up to a game-crushing snowball before anyone could even begin to touch him. The rest of the field’s best hope is in Krill getting discouraged by setbacks, which can definitely happen with these crazy settings.

The size of this map means there is a nonzero chance of complete barbarian domination, too, which is fun. Anyone have the spawn timings handy for this classical era start?

[Whosit]

No idea, but seems like it'll be a fun ride.

[Commodore]

No idea, but seems like it'll be a fun ride.

No kiddin'. Settings for posterity:


I'm letting my capital borders pop the nearest hut, so I instead target this one...

...darn, shouldn't have saved gold for a turn. 


There's a terrifying amount of forested riverland out here. 

I'm concerned about a lack of resources; the script can leave these forests bereft at times. There's an argument to be made for making Lumbermilltopia out of that super-river, but I think instead I'm going to be Mr. FDR and just try to chop every single wonder in the game.

[Commodore]

All about them huts, bruh.

...and they're like 90% "scout". Don't mind having a new scout...


...better than risking barb pops...

...and only getting "scouting" in the form of a map.


The capital hut was a scout too, so inner scouting is there. This is kind of weird with how many rivers I have, but we're looking at FOUR agriculture resources scouted so far that can use terrace fresh water.


The north scout popped more gold...

...and then met Pindicator with the Most Unexpected of Scouting Units. That means we're pretty close, accelerate that REX kids.


Slots, with the terrace-boosted corn and the, well, terrace, is my best city by far and will be whipping a crapton of workers and settlers. Poker is slower-starting, but it'll be where the longer-term investment lives.


Archer found the first Angry Villagers. SHOULD be able to defend okay on a forested hill, but let's see...

[Commodore]

Survived the warriors, and now...

Sniped the hut (nearer to me). 55 gold, baybe.

[klops]

satisfying :D

[Whosit]

What are your thoughts on being so near Pindicator?

[Commodore]

I don't like this, I need to fix my dotmap pretty swiftly (although settler isn't out until I have five workers).

Roulette in the upper corner there is the ASAP goal, I want all this forest as my own. I don't expect any food in the foggy forest tiles, foggazing has each remaining one a flat grass river forest.

[scooter]

You thinking of chopping every single wonder in the game or mass lumbermills? (Or whatever RtR wants you to do with forests, I did not read the changelog if it's even posted anywhere.)

[xist10]

You can see resources with fog gazing ?