[SPOILERS] TT's Cunning Plan!

[Twinkletoes89]

Well to fill up the first post, here are some vaguely related images which amuse me.

















I think that's enough for now! Got to save some for later!

Lurkers Cookie Table

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[Twinkletoes89]

reserved

[Twinkletoes89]

Firstly, let me introduce who I am for this fantastic game and explain why on earth I decided to do something so foolhardy (yet damn cunning!)

[SIZE="3"]Hammurabi of the Zulu[/SIZE]

Traits - Aggressive & Organized

UU - Impi (Spearman) - +100% vs Mounted Units, starts with Mobility promotion
UB - Ikhanda (Barracks) - Cost 10 more hammers - reduces maintenance by 20%

Starting Techs - Agriculture & Hunting

Using this combo, I intend to kick ass and drink milk, and I just finished my milk! I want to capitalise on the vacuum of diplomacy to try and catch someone unaware and hit them hard and gain myself plenty of new land. With noone else going Aggressive themselves, and seeing how common the farmers gambit has become, I want to try something new and see what I can achieve (or not)

Organized is mainly a safety net choice for me, as half price courthouses, organized & half price Ikhandas should make maintenance small enough not to worry about, though it will also be helpful in making the land I (hopefully) take, manageable enough to hold, not raze.

In terms of the thread - I am aiming to make it as entertaining as possible, so I don't end up taking the game so seriously and also more enjoyable. I will make bad moves (hopefully not as many as before), but I hopefully will make up for that with my amusing Blackadder/Sherlock Holmes/Montezuma style ramblings as I muddle my way through.

Stick around for the ride, it shouldn't be boring!

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Now for the only other bit of initial serious stuff

These are my opponents in this game:

[SIZE="2"]ad hoc -> Louis of Arabia [/SIZE]

Traits - Creative & Industrious

UU - Camel Archer (Knight) - resourceless, 25% chance to withdraw, Immune to first strikes
UB - Madrassa (Library) - Can turn 2 citizens into Priests, +2 Culture

Starting Techs - Mysticism & The Wheel

Interesting... This seems like a wonder-whoring leader pick really. Arabia isn't that fantasmagorical really, but it has some good synergy with Louis - namely half price Madrassas. With Mysticism start, they may well go for an early religion, but then their first worker will just be roading for a bit.

I'm playing with ad hoc in PBEM 10 and have seen his play in PBEM 8 (i think it is) so I know a bit about him. He doesn't strike me as intimidating and the fact that I managed to defend pretty successfully against him due to him not being aware of me having visibility on his cities with his military in shows that I may be at least on a level with him.

Threat Level - Low

Target Potential - High

[SIZE="2"]Pegasus -> Frederick of Sumeria [/SIZE]

Traits - Organized & Philosophical

UU - Vulture (Axeman) - +1 base strength but 25% less effective against melee
UB - Ziggurat (Courthouse) - 20 hammers cheaper, only 4 needed for Forbidden Palace.

Starting Techs - Agriculture & The Wheel

Ah, a civ I am well acquainted with. Vultures are pretty useful (when you have metal from early on...) and the half-price Ziggurats will come in handy on a toroidal Prince map. Expect Code of Laws to be an early priority for a quick Forbidden Palace too. Frederick is a pretty good pick given the ones which were banned, so I imagine there will be a specialist economy running here, boosted by the reduced maintenance.

I'm not so familiar with Pegasus' play, but the pick shows he's pretty shrewd. If he is worth his salt, he should be able to build quite a strong economy from his combo whilst being protected slightly by his Vultures.

Threat Level - Medium to High

Target Potential - Low

[SIZE="2"]novice et al -> Huayna Capac of China[/SIZE]

Traits - Financial & Industrious

UU - Cho-Ko-Nu (Crossbowman) - 2 first strikes, can cause collateral damage
UB - Pavilion (Theatre) - +25% culture

Starting Techs - Agriculture & Mining

Well whoever picked first (except me) was always going to pick HC, who is probably slightly too good to be let through the net of civs banned from this game. Being the only Financial civ will be a major boon for this team and Industrious will also be handy along the way. I imagine that they will be focussed on some of the early wonders - likely Oracle (for MC) and The Great Library to leverage their second trait - Stonehenge could be possible too seen as ad-hoc doesn't need it. If the map turns out to be quite water based, I imagine they will be racing for the Great Lighthouse along with ad hoc. China as a pick does not scream the two scary words at me ('synergy' or 'aggression') and I am at a loss to explain why they chose it (other than being last in the snake pick). Cho-Ko-Nus are lovely but not crazily worrying right now.

Again, nothing much known about the play of the guys on this team but novice is an active member and can come up with some sound suggestions and observations in the games he lurks, so he cannot be written off. If they are my neighbour, I may well turn my maniac eyes upon them early doors. I imagine they will push a farmers gambit early doors and with such a good leader, they may need to be taken out early to avoid them dominating.

Threat Level - High

Target Potential - Very High

[SIZE="2"]ruff_hi -> Sitting Bull of Spain[/SIZE]

Traits - Philosophical & Protective

UU - Conquistador (Cuirasser) - 15% chance to withdraw, Immune to first strikes, +50% v melee, gets defensive bonuses
UB - Citadel (Castle) - All new seige weapons get +2 exp, -50% damage to city walls by non-gunpowder bombardment

Starting Techs - Mysticism & Fishing

I think I see where Ruff is going here. I believe that he is looking at trying to present himself as a very tough nut to crack. Protective along with Castles does just scream at me 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough'. Building a well defended empire using a specialist economy to keep pace, he is possibly the last person I want as a neighbour. Conquistadors aren't brilliant, but on normal speed he could get some good use out of them, and the fact that they get defensive bonuses too makes him an even harder nut to crack. Ideally he'll be miles away from me and then I don't have to deal with him at all until much later.

ruff is most likely the strongest player here and has to be respected. He will play his hand well and I imagine he will be a feature of the game for a long time, given his defensive base he will surely build.

Threat Level - Medium to High

Target Potential - Absolute Zero

[meatbalz]

baldrick reporting for duty

[luddite]

One small correction to your OP- the citadel is actually +5 XP for seige units, so it's quite scary if you can get there. You can build 10XP cannons out of the box, with the citadel, barracks, theocracy, and 1 gg.

With China, he might just be interested in their starting techs, which are probably the best overall. That's just a guess though, I haven't actually read anything by him yet.

[mackoti]

Actualy i think China is one of the strongest pick, very good starting tecs, and with war eles banned ckn''s are not bad at all. I think their problem is that is a defensive unit perhapse they intend to use it like that.
Every thing will depend now on the map if your planes will aplied,but if not i think you have a just fine leader for going the building way.
I played some maps with toroidal option man the maintenace for a big city can get to 14 at size 10(ye noble level). So if get down 70% of that you'l have just near 5, ye 10 gold saved in not that much time.
And organized will make your cost cheaper(if you manage to get over 10 cities will star to beat financial) so Ye not bad choise.

[meatbalz]

Remember ORG reduces civic costs, not city maintenance costs. if you want to cut those down, half-priced ikhandas and courthouses are the way to go.

[mackoti]

But civic cost are biger if you have a big empire, so again a gain for organized.

[Amelia]

Start

[Twinkletoes89]

Wowzers! Two fully mature towns to start off with? Its different at least!

novice et al will like this if the starts are identical, with the Financial bonus on those cottages. I imagine this will also give the Philosophical leaders more incentive to go towards Writing asap for early academies.

Its a nice bonus for us but not making me jump for joy. If there is copper in the bfc I will probably be annoyed - with my aggressive intentions I would like them to have to settle somewhere less defensible for the copper so I may be able to take advantage.

Also I have a warrior instead of a scout despite starting with Hunting. If my 'friends' are not too far away it may be a blessing, but we shall see.

Once the turn gets round to me I shall get into 'character' and hopefully get some lurkers chuckling along with me on my potentially murderous campaigns - as there is nothing funnier than mindless slaughter...

This start has also given me some ideas...