[PB81] Dreylin vacations in the Isles

[Dreylin]

I'm thinking I might do a "The Islands around the UK" naming theme for this one.


Edit:

High Island

• Mjmd: Julius Caesar (ORG/IMP) of Zulu (Impi/Ikhanda)
  
• Naufragar: Boudica (AGG/CHA) of Portugal (Carrack/Feitoria)
  
• The Black Sword: Pericles (CRE/PHI) of America (Navy SEAL/Carnegie Public Library)
  
• Superdeath: Catherine (IMP/CRE) of Byzantium (Cataphract/Hippodrome)
  

Low Island

• Dreylin: Willem (CRE/FIN) of Rome (Praetorian/Forum)
  
• Greenline: Wang Kong (PRO/FIN) of Persia (Immortal/Bazaar)
  
• Xist: Tokugawa (AGG/PRO) of Sumer (Vulture/Ziggurat)
  
• Giraflorens: Qin Shi Huang (PRO/IND) of India (Fast Worker/Mausoleum)
  

Password:

aisles

[Dreylin]

So I have to do a tier list for this game, well that will be ... inexact.

So here's the list in sign-up order:

Greenline
TBS
Mjmd
Superdeath
Naufragar
Giraflorens
Xist
Dreylin

I'm not going to do a complete ranking, but will at least split them onto the two islands. I'll start with the easy ones:

TBS to High Island. In my previous play era, I remember TBS as one of the best players around. I get the impression they've been away for a while, so add some rustiness and unfamiliarity with the mod and you still probably have one of the best players around.

Xist & Giraflorens to Low Island: I don't know either player well and I can't follow them in the Greens game since I'm dedlurking Coldrain, but Greens game.

Greenline to Low Island: we neighboured each other in PB75, and while his combo had the potential to be threatening it never felt that way in his hands. As I was about to be consumed by Ginger, he made a couple of stabs at attacking me, but neither was very well put together and were turned aside relatively easily.

OK, so much for the easy ones, now we have the soup in the middle: MJMD, Superdeath, Naufragar & Dreylin. This is where I mostly shrug my shoulders and go "I dunno" and wait to see which of us the Lurkers pull out for Low Island. The main game where the others are competitive is PB75 and I really haven't kept up with that since I was eliminated - I did go through a few of the threads, but not most of these - so I'm not sure I have a good perception of where we each fall on the spectrum.

Going from my perception of the opinion of others, I'd likely put MJMD a bit ahead of the rest of us and onto High Island.

I feel like Superdeath & I are roughly the same level, thought it's a bit hard to tell since he doesn't report reliably. Our main difference I think is that he defaults aggressive while I default passive. That probably favours him so might knock him to a slightly higher spot than myself.

I have no read on Naufragar other than his successes in PB75 (at least up to when I was eliminated). He appeared to have planed out a PHI-based bulb strategy that I'm not sure I have the dedication to do - as I've stated elsewhere, I prefer to pick the passive traits with well-defined bonuses rather than the active traits that have higher potential paybacks, but require more investment to reach.

If it feels like I'm trying to justify placing myself in the 4th spot of Low Island, then it's not a conscious effort - it's just maybe easier to see the flaws and esp. skills of others than recognise them in yourself. Anyway, I don't have to justify the final decision and wouldn't be too surprised to end up on either island.

In Summary:

High Island: TBS & MJMD
Low Island: Xist, Giraflorens & Greenline.
Mid-tier Soup: Naufragar, Superdeath & Dreylin.

[Dreylin]

As for starts, there were two players that us lurkers was ever so slightly undecided about where to place, so the one that is on the veteran continent has the best start there, and the one on the green continent has the most challenging start. The differences are still marginal, and the starts are generally balanced.

I'm going to guess that this is me & Superdeath, with Nauf on High Island. So looking forward to a Plains Cow and Dry Rice as food sources!

[Dreylin]

Well last on the snake means I don't have to think to hard about anything yet, which is good.

Assuming my analysis is correct, I need to pay attention to the trends of TBS/MJMD/Nauf and Xist/Gira/Greenline, but can ignore Superdeath.

In "revisiting the deficiencies of the previous game", I'm thinking I want to take CRE and completely skip the religious line. Would then pair with an economic trait - maybe Zara for ORG? No strong feelings on Civ yet - I'd quite like to try out Sumeria, but doubt it makes it down that far (and if it did I'd want to sub out ORG for something else). Will probably look to max tech synergy to accelerate the start.

[Tarkeel]

[Dreylin]

Immediate thoughts:

Definitely looks like Workboat first, so I want Fishing. I promised myself early Cottages/Granary = The Wheel. Probably want mining as the 3rd tech to go for early slavery. Those 3 techs give me a good selection of Civs to choose from.

With the river & FP, I'm thinking FIN to go with CRE, so Willem.

[klops]

> ...so Willem


nice, the start is already called "orange"

[Dreylin]

>  ...so Willem


nice, the start is already called "orange"

I'd happily take Orange borders if no-one else has them.

I have actually run some tests!    It looks like Fishing/Wheel/Mining holds up. Hunting-AH start is a bit awkward that I need to improve the Ivory before the Pigs, but I'm looking at a turn 30 Settler with a road connection and 2 Warriors, which is decent.

I tried a Hunting/Fishing/Mining start but that really doesn't give me any interesting civs to choose from and the Worker runs out of useful stuff to do waiting for Wheel to come in after.

I also tried Pottery first and putting down Cottages on the FP before improving the Ivory of Pigs ... love the commerce, but it felt slow. I did go Granary before Settler though so maybe I need to run the test again.

Anyway, as previously noted, Fishing/Wheel/Mining give some interesting civs. Not that it means anything , but I ran the tests with Rome - always a solid choice for early game deterent. England is the only one with any trait synergy with Willem, but the bonuses are a bit late for my preference. Mali & Japan give different takes on unique Forges - Japan edges that one I think - while Carthage & Portugal give different naval bonuses. I could see Portugal being an interesting choice knowing we have 2 main islands (and probably-maybe some Astro lands as well). Oh and Byzantium. 

[Tarkeel]

> ...so Willem


nice, the start is already called "orange"

It's called Orange because the randomly selected civ for this start was Netherlands, which fits even better.

[Dreylin]

OK so Willem is locked, but I'm waffling over Rome verses Japan.

It basically comes down to Praetorians verses Tatara. Strong early game UU verses cheaper, improved Forge. Now I think we all know that I love to overbuild infrastructure, so the cheaper Forge is very tempting - early FIN/Cottage-fueled MC and invest the hammers I've saved from cheap Libraries into early Tatara.

Let's look at the opponent picks: assuming my tier list is right and SD & I are in the middle, we have low island going PRO while High island goes ... hmmm, Zulu and Boudica. What do you rate the chances of Nauf pairing Boudica with Rome if I don't pick it? They've just finished a PHI/America game so are probably looking for some smashy-smashy. So would I want to share an island with Boudica of Rome, and how would I defend against it?

Taking Rome myself is probably the best defense against it. I guess Tatara will have to wait for a later game.